A friendly Florida-Ohio wager
The governors of Florida and Ohio made a friendly wager over the phone on Thursday on next Monday's BCS college football championship between the Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes.
Gov. Charlie Crist bet a shipment of Florida citrus and Ohio Gov.-elect Ted Strickland countered with some Ohio wine and chocolate-covered, peanut-butter filled candy that looks like the famous buckeyes.
"A gentleman's arrangement," Crist called it. "I think it will be a great game."
Strickland also suggested that the loser fly the winner's state flag over the governor's residence for one day. "I'll certainly fly it somewhere," Crist said.
Neither governor is going to the game in Glendale, Ariz. Crist, a rabid FSU sports fan, will be in Tallahassee, and Strickland, who will be inaugurated Monday, plans to watch the game on TV with OSU students.
"I love your state," said Strickland, a frequent visitor to Florida, "and my backup plan in case I lost this election was a T-shirt shop in Key West."
From the writers of the St. Petersburg Times, The Buzz offers the latest news in Florida politics. This is a public forum sponsored and maintained by the St. Petersburg Times. When you post comments here, what you say becomes public and could appear in the newspaper. You are not engaging in private communication with candidates or Times staffers.
Ohio WINE?! That doesn't sound too good.
Go Gators!
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 04:05 PM
They could just exchange electronic voting machines....
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 04:11 PM
... or boy pages
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 04:22 PM
Key West T-shirt shop?
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 04:35 PM
4:05 YOu should really try the wine. Lake Erie acts as a micro climate not only for grapes, but also peaches.
Posted by: realbluedemocrat | January 04, 2007 at 04:44 PM
Ohio is going to love our citrus.
The gators have no chance.
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 05:01 PM
Go Gators
Posted by: Senor | January 04, 2007 at 10:10 PM
This is very sad for both our states.
Fruit you can get at the Piggly Wiggly for $20, candy that Darfur refugees wouldn't eat, wine that you can't even re-gift?
Posted by: | January 04, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Like any good SEMINOLE fan, I say go....
Oh, hell, I think I'll just ignore the game.
Posted by: Dave Cutler | January 05, 2007 at 10:36 AM
Florida may win the football game but let's hope that Charlie won't have to punt when he gets put to the real test. We'll need to keep a good eye on this guy...regardless of whether he talks the talk during hurricane season...remember we have NASA and the Hurricane Center in Miami to do that. We want reversal of the damage done by Jeb. No PR firm in the world can convince us otherwise. Good luck Charlie.
Posted by: | January 05, 2007 at 08:33 PM
When that Buckeye says "backup plan" and "Key West" in the same sentence, he better have some vaseline.
Posted by: Samuel Adams | January 06, 2007 at 12:36 AM