Dear Diary,

An airport expansion in a desert state revealed that the surrounding fields were full of ditches. As no purpose for them could be seen, the ditches were removed. Not long afterwards, the state experienced one of its occasional floods. The nearby lake overflowed into the same places were the ditches had been located.

Checking the old records revealed that the lake had flooded these same areas in the past and that the ditches had been dug to drain away the excess water. Everyone must have been relieved to discover that their ancestors were not "ditch digging fools." I guess they thought that their ancestors followed the modern policy of "if there is an open field, construct something on it." Isn't it a shame that they were not as advanced as we are?

Well, they decided to put the ditches back (at least the ones whose locations hadn't been covered by concrete or by a building). I wonder how much money it costs to reinstall ditches that had been dug over one hundred years earlier. Of course, we also have to factor in the cost of the removal. Wasn't there a movie about a person trying to earn an inheritance by spending a large amount of money is a short period of time? I wonder what type of inheritance these people were trying to earn?