WEALTHY AMERICANS: TREND-CRAZED IDIOTS?

We report; you decide.

(Thanks to The Amazing Steve, Unless It Is Another Steve)

Comments

[Betsy]

"It's a three-day journey by yacht to get to their water source."

Light-years....yacht-days...
Each field has its own system of measurements.

[TNjen]

If I'm going to pay too much money for a beverage, it better make me drunk.

[Steve (The 24 Guy)]

Just for the record: That one wasn't me. It was one of the other Steves around here.

Last thing I sent in was a Beer Song sung by Legos.

[Jeff Meyerson]

$55 for a bottle of water. Right.

Sounds like a Paris Hilton Production.

[Siouxie]

YAY! STEVE the Amazing!!

ok...there goes MY post.

[Jazzzz]

there are so many people uneducated about water

I hope she makes enough money to get her head remover from her a$$.

A couple of years ago, Penn and Teller's "Bullsh!t" show did a spot in Hollyweird serving different waters to the "enlightened". Nice bottles and lables from all over the world. Having a "water tasting" party. $10 a bottle or so. The yuppies were "oohing and ahhing" about each one, talking about the bouquet and such, selecting their favorite one, holding their pinky finger out. Well, there was a guy in the back, filling all the bottles from a rubber water hose. (yecchhh). PT Barnum comes to mind.

[Jazzzz]

yeah, yeah.....removeD..

[Meditrina]

Jazzzz..... you stole my line! I saw that bullsh!t too. It is my capitalist belief that stupid people deserve to be separated from their money.

What next? An Oxygen bar with imported O2? We'll make a fortune! The insurance may be prohibitive, but the Oxygen could be a blast.

[Eleanor]

Med, in Los Angeles there are Oxygen bars!

You're too late. :(

[CJrun]

It's a fact, pretentious people still manage to pick tap water over fancy brands, if the brand names are disguised. All you have to do is let it stand for a day or so, to allow the chlorine to off-gas.

Speaking of which, no more Mexican food on Friday nights....

[Siouxie]

Med! mornin' how goes things?? Work??

El, we also have those Oxygen bars here. I've been to one called - get this - "Oxygen". They didn't have the O2 flowing though. It was just a dance club then.

As far as water goes, I ask for the cheap stuff...tap. Unless I'm in Mexico. Then I just drink tekillya. ;-P

[SW]

A perfect example of the trickle-down theory of economics.

[crossgirl]

i'll stick with beer thank you.

[SW]

I wonder what kind of aftermarket there is for the afterpee.

[Bethie]

Well, after hearing that after municipal water is purified, it still contains Prozac and Nicotine, amongst other lovely urine byproducts, I am happy to buy my bottle water, bottled in glass of course to avoid that "plastically" flavor.

[Siouxie]

Stevie, it's called Coors™

[Eleanor]

Oxygen Bar owned by Woody Harrelson. I thought marijuana hemp was his favorite play thing.

Chillville, anyone?

OR, we could just build our own for Friday nights on the Blog.

[insomniac]

tap water contains prozac and nicotine??? and doesn't require a prescription?

living in a county where some people would love to have access to tap water, this story is disgusting...

[Richard the Weasel-Hearted]

Al: "... no, really. $50 for a haircut?!?!"

Gorgeous barber: "Well, you know what they say: People are suckers. ...Ooops, I wasn't supposed to say that, was I?"

Aaah, those were the days. They just don't write shows like that any more.

[crossgirl]

*snork* at siouxie's coors.

tap water contains prozac and nicotine??? and doesn't require a prescription?

exactly! and people wonder why i'm so calm.

[Bethie]

One thing I've noticed about people...you don't bring up three subjects now: Politics, Religion, and Bottled or Tap Water. I don't care if someone wants to drink tap water with chloronated water, and various piss extracts. Who cares? I don't understand why people get so mad that I am stupid enough to buy bottled water. Boo hoo. This is America, and I can drink bottled water to excess if I wanna!!

[DeskDiva]

Hey, El - on that make our own oxygen bar link, do you realize The Girl Scouts are some of their customers?! Look at the bottom of the page!

[Eleanor]

No Diva, I didn't see that.

Bethie, here in su.so.ca. everyone drinks bottled water, little kids, help people, we have terrible tap water. When the ooutside of my house was being painted, all the painters wanted was a bottle of water, not soda or anything else.

[Bethie]

Eleanor, I agree. YOu might not be able to tell the difference with some tap water, but especially here in the South around summertime the water gets an algae overgrowth and it makes the water taste like dirty dog, or even worse, dead fish. Besides the chlorine, and piss and stuff.

[Richard the Weasel-Hearted]

But wouldn't a home filtration system be more cost-effective? Perhaps a Britta filter might even suffice?

[Kristina L.]

I don't know. Where I work, the filtered water tastes slightly wrong once it's warm, so I bring in those big $1 bottles that last about a week. I use a filter at home.

[ScottMGS]

I hate to tell you all this but the purity standards for tap water in the U.S. (someone with more expertise could shoot me down, here) are *higher* than the standards for putting water in a bottle and selling it. Now, that doesn't mean that all bottled water is more contaminated than tap water but it very well could be and you wouldn't be able to tell.

Taste, of course, isn't a measure for tap water, just cleanliness and healthiness.

Third, if you are ever driving on Interstate 5 on the west side of Mt. Shasta pull off at the little city park just off the freeway and fill your water bottle up with snow-melt water coming out of a lava tube down from Mt. Shasta. It's clean, not green, doesn't have stuff floating in it and tastes good. Just like my brother told us, there were a bunch of people there filling up bottles to take home.

[Bethie]

I agree, Scott. You really have to know your water. God, that sounded so hippy like, but yeah. I like Mountain Valley Water. Only in the glass bottles. Their water in plastic bottles tastes awful. They even give that stuff to race horses! They claim that "dignitaries" all over the world are customers. They certainly don't charge $55 dollars a bottle, though, but they do taste the best of all bottled water I've tried.

[Eleanor]

Scott, do you drink San Diego tap water?

[Siouxie]

cg, thanks ;-) I knew a beer connosiur connosur drinker would appreciate the humor.

Scott, I agree. My sister's neighbor works for the Water & Sewer Dept. here in Miyami...and he's always said our "tap" is better than most places. Good enough for me.

[Jazzzz]

I am blessed to live in Hot Springs, Ar. Home of the water consistently rated the best in the world. Just comes out of the ground. The downtown area has several "stations" where you go take you container (we use 5 gal. bottles and have a dispenser) and fill'er up. No charge. Takes 3500 yrs to recycle from rain until it comes back out. The city cools the water from above 130 Degres (not sure on the precise temp)and it is piped to many places around town. Also bottled as Mountain Valley, among others...

[pete]

Jazzzz, my thoughts exactly. Not a day goes by that Barnum is not proven correct.

[ScottMGS]

El - yes, though I put it through a Brita filter at home and I have reverse osmosis at work. If you're asking do I *pay* for water in little plastic bottles the answer is no. I also don't buy air... yet. ;-)

The really funny one is that Fiji water (their site). It comes from Fiji. Imagine the expense and waste of shipping gazillions of small empty plastic bottles (or the supplies to create them) half-way around the world across the ocean (consisting mostly of water) where they are filled up with water and shipped back across that same water. Frankly, that's stupid. We have had the technology to purify water for a heck of a long time and we know what trace minerals give water it's taste.

[ScottMGS]

Uh, that should be "its taste."

[Bethie]

Jazz, you are lucky, cause that is some good water.

[Brantgoose]

"There are so many people that are uneducated about water," Felicissimo said.

Yes, for example, they're ignorant about the environmental cost of lugging the stuff around the world when you have perfectly good water on tap. The fact that poor people in the world's slums are paying more for bottled water than Bollywood superstars, for lack of piped water.

Speaking of which, I saw Fiji ("Yes, we shipped it all the way from the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific" Water in the local convenience store. Reminds me of the way Quikimart gets its ice in the "Bobo" episode of THE SIMPSONS. There must be a cheaper and easier way.

Remember, when you buy bottled water, the French win.

[Brantgoose]

TNJen: You want to get drunk on expensive bottled water? Try drinking Heavy Water (made with Deuterium instead of regular hydrogen). No hangover, I hear.