OK, this is something I’ve never done and hesitate to do, but what the hell, here goes:
When we adopted Wendy, one of the last things the people at the Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society said to us when we left was, “You live in Grosse Pointe? We have our big Pooch Prance fundraiser at the Ford house in the fall, and we expect to see you there, prancin’.”
The Pooch Prance — an up-to-10K walk — is this Sunday. Wendy and I will be prancin’.
If you like, you can donate. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DONATE. i won’t even know if you donate, most likely. But if you would like, you can click the “Pooch Team Donation” button on this page and donate via Paypal. It’s a 10K walk, but I’m thinking we might do half that. (Remember, my dog has a reconstructed leg and I have an ouchy knee.) I’m registering as “Team Wendy.” It’s just us — we are the team.
So, donate, or don’t donate. No judging one way or another. But it’s a good cause. This shelter is in a very rough neighborhood, and has been running on a shoestring since the Depression. (According to our vet.) There are lots of animals who could use some shelterin’ in Detroit. Your contribution won’t go to waste.
What else? How about a picture. Here’s a fairly common sight you see around these parts: A secret vehicle.
I have no idea what this thing is, other than a pickup truck. You run across them every so often in and around the automotive capital of North America, and I always hope they’re some sort of supercool Project X-type vehicle. You know, like the K car. (Kidding.)
And here’s a link to a great audio essay by Jian Ghomeshi, the Canadian radio host, on the idiocy of the bottled-water racket. I like his show, Q. It’s sort of the “Fresh Air” of Canada.
Long hours at work this week, sorry.
Dexter said on September 5, 2013 at 1:04 am
You post a pickup truck photo, I post a pick-up truck photo. For years I have been swearing I would buy a 1937 Dodge pickup truck and have a modern engine installed. http://rasloto.com/gallery/dodge/37dodge-7906.jpg
And I can’t wait until Sunday…Jeffrey Wright joins the cast of Boardwalk Empire.
303 chars
ROGirl said on September 5, 2013 at 6:35 am
The truck is not special, just an advanced vehicle being road tested prior to the new model release (could be a 2014 model year truck). The camouflage hides some of the styling details as well as the interior features, but the shape often gives away the make of the vehicle.
275 chars
ROGirl said on September 5, 2013 at 6:57 am
Although with driverless vehicles currently in development, they do apparently test them on the roads in these parts. Who knows which car bodies are used for those tests?
170 chars
coozledad said on September 5, 2013 at 7:11 am
There have been driverless vehicles down here for as long as I can remember. Once they develop riderless ones the safety should improve somewhat.
145 chars
alex said on September 5, 2013 at 7:18 am
It’s a Ford. I’d lay money on it. Scroll down to see all the iterations and our test vehicle is the third one down. The giveaway was the round rear wheel well, which rules out anything from GM.
357 chars
beb said on September 5, 2013 at 7:46 am
“site” Nancy? Oh the grammar bitches are going to hear about that.
Good luck with the pooch walk. Hope the weather is nice.
126 chars
Deborah said on September 5, 2013 at 8:01 am
I changed my gravatar, checking to see if it worked.
52 chars
Deborah said on September 5, 2013 at 8:17 am
Why is my new gravatar not working?
35 chars
Dorothy said on September 5, 2013 at 9:25 am
Wait, what? Wendy has a reconstructed leg? How did I miss that? Our Augie has one, too. Well, it’s his left front paw technically. In two weeks we will have owned him for nine years now. And yesterday was six years since I started working at my current job. WHERE does the time go?!?!
287 chars
brian stouder said on September 5, 2013 at 9:54 am
We’ll see if I can get Pam (who has the keys to the kingdom, around here) to kick a few bucks toward the animal shelter that kept our Proprietress’s beautiful little dog in this world, long enough for her to find her way home.
Aside from that, Deborah – I have no idea how the gravatar thing works.
And aside from that, I just got pulled (almost literally) into a brief political banter, about Syria. Suffice it to say, I had to make the point (and then defend it!) that the US Senate is indeed a part of the Congress of the United States.
Onward and upward, eh?
585 chars
Judybusy said on September 5, 2013 at 10:05 am
What, Brian, really?! Well, I do learn so much here every.single.day.
I’ll donate later, on my home computer–good on you for doing the walk.
I am in a donating mood–went to a fundraiser last night to get seed money going for a documentary about our amazing marriage equality win here in MN. It will be used primarily to inspire and educate activists in other states on our strategy, which can hopefully work elsewhere! If you all are so inclined, here is the link. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uptake/how-minnesota-went-from-no-to-yes-on-marriage-equa The picture is our Minneapolis mayor doing one of many weddings at our pretty city hall.
659 chars
Bitter Scribe said on September 5, 2013 at 10:10 am
The K car! What a flop. My generation’s Edsel. You never see them around anymore, even in junkyards.
100 chars
nancy said on September 5, 2013 at 10:17 am
They were homely for sure, but not a flop. Wikipedia (because I don’t have time to dive for numbers in books): “The K-cars (Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant, Chrysler LeBaron, Dodge 400, and, in Mexico, Dodge Dart) sold very well, selling between 280,000 and 360,000 every year from 1981 to 1988, and edging over 100,000 in their final year, 1989.”
345 chars
brian stouder said on September 5, 2013 at 10:26 am
The only car I ever bought brand new was a 1981 Dodge Aries K Car, 4 speed manual 2-door.
Really, I bought it from Lee Iacocca; that guy was great. The book Never Complain, Never Explain (about Henry Ford II*) put me firmly in Iacocca’s fan-base.
It was a good car, for the most part, but it pretty much fell apart over the next 5 years
* http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/30/obituaries/henry-ford-2d-is-dead-at-70-led-auto-maker-s-recovery.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
477 chars
alex said on September 5, 2013 at 10:36 am
The K-car was pretty remarkable. It’s the platform from which sprung the minivan, a market segment that Chrysler not only invented but continues to dominate. But the Aries, Reliant, etc., not to mention the more upscale models fashioned out of the same sow’s ear, were absolute shit. In all fairness, though, the GM and Ford products from the same period weren’t any better. The ’80s and early ’90s will go down as the single bleakest period in American automotive history, where both quality and style were completely absent. In future decades, the era will likely be underrepresented at auto shows, if only because so few surviving specimens exist and wouldn’t be worth seeing if they did.
691 chars
Bitter Scribe said on September 5, 2013 at 11:41 am
I thought Iacocca and Ford didn’t like each other. Iacocca sure gave Ford some shots in his autobio.
Maybe the K-car sold well, but as brian says, it didn’t last. Five years is too short a life for a car, at least with today’s prices in today’s economy.
256 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 11:43 am
Never seen a disguised pickup like that. Lots of camo painted trucks with 747 suspensions and wheels, but no stadium wall padding. Is that stuff bullet-proof?
Speaking of bullet-proof, my kevlar-belted tires have now gone a year without a flat, and I’ve even ridden into the recycling center with loads on my bike, which probably qualifies as tempting fate.
Vertigo is on Turner Classic tonight. Only James Stewart movie other than The Rope I can watch for more than five minutes.
558 chars
Charlotte said on September 5, 2013 at 12:03 pm
I have a dog with a reconstructed leg too — but his didn’t take and I wound up having to get him a custom orthotic from these great guys in Canada — K9 Orthotics (http://www.k-9orthotics.com/) — he blew his knee, which we rebuilt. Then he blew the achilles on the same leg. The fancy orthopedic vet in Billings rebuilt that leg (he was only 5 at the time) and we spent 6-8 months rehabbing it. He came out of the braces and bandages and six weeks later — chasing a bunny in the woods — blammo! blew it again. I couldn’t bear to do more surgery on the poor guy, so we made a cast of his bad leg, sent it to Canada, and he’s been wearing a spiffy black exoskeleton leg brace ever since. Six years on and he’s quite mobile (the brace is now the least of his problems — the arthritis in all his other joints is what slows him down). Also, he’ll flop it out in front of strangers as a begging ploy — Chuck calls it his “Tiny Tim act” — ohh! see! did you notice I’m crippled! I need a cookie.
994 chars
Deborah said on September 5, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Yesterday a guy came by our place selling rosaries to raise funds for a friend’s mother’s funeral. He had a great story and I bought one of the rosaries that he said he learned how to make in prison out of plastic bags. It’s really pretty cool, I gave him $11 for it which is all the cash we could scrape together from our pockets. My husband couldn’t believe I opened the door and gave the guy money but like I said he told a great story and the rosary was made by someone in prison. Call me a sucker, I’m not even Catholic.
Later last night gun shots were heard and the cops were swarming around. Great neighborhood.
621 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 12:16 pm
I just read the last comments from yesterday. I meant to acknowledge that my point of view was inherently selfish.
And regarding the great name of that abolitionist newspaper, it reminded me of the Unterrified Democrat, which is still truckin’ as a weekly in Linn, MO, definitely behind enemy lines these days.
Our mail today brought a Kickstarter CD by Leyla McCalla, who is a member of the estimable Carolina Chocolate Drops (cello). Most of the songs are Langston Hughes poems set to music and arranged by Ms. McCalla. A few are traditional Haitian tunes (the album package has translatians. The musical accompaniment is sparse, mostly just Leyla’s gorgeous voice, full-bodied tenor banjo finger-picking, and what is like a banjo or guitar attack on the cello. This is as good as anything I’ve heard new this year. Great poetry set to pure and gorgeous music, sung by a woman with a beautiful voice. The song at the link is a good example of what the album sounds like.
Charlotte I have spiffy black exo braces for both knees I wear for skiing and hoops. Don’t know if it’s from football, track or diving, or just an accumulation, but they are both shot. Here in SC where the goober-nor and the lege passed a law criminalizing any effort by any public official to put any aspect of ACA into motion, I’ll be needing those things for a long time. They’re great for hoops. Others take it for granted I’m slow and can’t jump, plus there is my complexion. Suckers.
1738 chars
LAMary said on September 5, 2013 at 12:18 pm
I can’t do the audio link to the water discussion here at work, but from the comments I suspect he talks about a lot of the same things I bring up when I tell people they don’t need to buy water. I use tap water. I hate those plastic bottles and all the waste they create. Everyone in the household has a water bottle to use for hiking, biking, whatever, and LA tap water tastes fine. Until what, twenty five years ago maybe you rarely saw anyone drinking bottled water in the US unless it was fizzy. Other than marketing, what changed?
538 chars
nancy said on September 5, 2013 at 12:23 pm
That is pretty much what Ghomeshi argues. Besides the waste, bottled water has been linked to falling aquifers in places where they draw their supplies, and a lot of it (Aquafina, Dasani) basically IS tap water, bottled by Pepsi and Coke, respectively.
It always bugged me, because clean, fresh, cheap drinking water is one of the great advances of modern civilization. So of course we need to supplement it with bullshit.
Disclaimer: We buy one case of bottled water a year, for the boat. Otherwise I use the tap, and my Brita pitcher.
540 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Here in touristaland, our tap water tastes good and tests well, except it has a considerable tritium load. Five legged salamanders and hemaphrodite frogs, oh my. Tap water in Boston and surrounding areas comes from the pristine Quabbin Reservoir out near Amherst.
It’s the outsourcing, stupid. World’s greatest health care system. Riiiight.
We use the Brita pitcher (a brilliant invention) for coffee and tea, and keep some tap water filled SS bottles in the fridge for biking and hiking.
693 chars
Deborah said on September 5, 2013 at 12:37 pm
I admit I buy bottled sparkling water, it’s the only non-alcoholic beverage I drink besides decaf coffee. I just like it. I suppose I could learn how to make my own, probably should.
182 chars
LAMary said on September 5, 2013 at 12:40 pm
My fridge has an ice maker and a water filter and we drink that, but I don’t have any issues with tap water. I was at a job fair two weeks ago in a tacky banquet center sort of place. The staff brought out big pitchers of ice water for us, and one of my colleauges poured a glass for herself, tasted and and said, “ugh, tap water.” Seriously? You’re eating crap junk food but your palate is so acutely tuned you can determine that tap water is not at tasty as Dasani or Aquafina? Bullshit.
491 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Every well-stocked home bar used to have a soda siphon to produce sparkling water. Watch a Topper movie or any Thin Man movie. Even Myrna Loy could operate it. Just joking, Nora usually figured things out before Nick did. But they did always use a soda siphon to mix cocktails. Frequently. I love those movies.
Williams Sonoma has a beauty for $75:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/classic-soda-siphon/
Nice bit of design, In my opinion. They use small CO2 cartridges. One of my brothers has a siphon less fancy, and less than $50.
547 chars
Julie Robinson said on September 5, 2013 at 1:12 pm
We buy a couple of cases a year for events where there’s no drinks available, but other than that, tap water filtered through the Brita does just fine. Nestle has been under fire since the 70’s for promoting formula use in third world countries. Lack of money to pay for formula as well as lack of clean water to mix it up and clean the bottles, vs. breast milk, the perfect food manufactured by Mom. Reprehensible.
415 chars
beb said on September 5, 2013 at 1:15 pm
It is with both confusion and pride that I note that Detroit’s tap water has frequently won annual taste contests. Confusion because – have you looked at the Detroit River (our source) lately? and Pride because we do a damn fine job of cleaning up that water and making it potable.
The chief difference between tap water and bottled water is that tap water has to have a minimum level of detectable chlorine in it to demonstrate disinfection. Bottled water not so much. It’s the taste of chlorine that puts off people about city water. But without chlorine you’ll never know when there’ll be anothger typhus outbreak.
The big irony about bottle water is that at times it is more expensive than a cola of the same size. Both start with the same ingredient – purified water – but the cola adds a lot more stuff to it and yet it costs less than the water.
858 chars
Dorothy said on September 5, 2013 at 1:26 pm
We were in Columbus over the weekend and stopped in a Whole Foods in Upper Arlington before we headed home. (We’d had lunch at the Greek festival and even though we weren’t hungry, we thought we’d pick up some prepared food for dinner for when we got hungry. We were disappointed with all three salad-y things we picked up.) They had three varieties of bottled water in the entry lobby and I hope the clerks near the doorway heard us chortling about “What idiot is going to pay $17 and change for a case of friggin’ WATER?!?!?!” I have no off switch when it comes to that kind of ridiculousness.
596 chars
Connie said on September 5, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Our current and previous houses had/have nice cold well water. I can smell and taste the chlorine in the tap water at work. Which is the same Detroit water and sewer water Beb refers to. To which Beb refers.
208 chars
MarkH said on September 5, 2013 at 1:34 pm
That rig is definitely a Ford. As opposed to the homgonized look of most cars these days, different truck line actually look different. I don’t know why they bothered with the disguise as it’s not much different in design from previous years. Plus, I thought they didn’t put disguised cars out on the road much anymore, just on the test track to keep spies like Jim Dunne from getting an advanced look. Plus does anyone care anymore like we did in the ’50s or ’60s about new vehicle unveilings? The cars and trucks for 2014 were out in the car mags easily six months ago.
As Nancy said, the K-cars were definitley NOT a flop. They laid the platform to save Chryler’s ass coming out of BK while that platform did indeed provide for the minivans in ’84 which helped the company thrive again. The problem was, throughout the ’80s and ’90s (and to a certain extent will always be), build quality. I retailed cars and trucks from ’89 through ’97. The store I started at had just added the entire Chrysler line to Ford and Subaru, and we were ecstatic, if only for the Voyager/Caravan/Town & Country and an alternative truck line to Ford. By ’89 the K-cars were history and had evolved into more attractive new models. But, as one of my friends so rightfully said about Chrysler back then: “Beer cans on wheels”.
Bitter, you are absolutely correct, but more so on Henry the Deuce’s feelings toward Iacocca. From Motor Trend in 2005:
“And then there was Lee Iacocca. Iacocca was the hottest hotshot and the biggest idea man at Ford for 32 years. In his day, he rose higher and enjoyed greater authority than anybody in the company who wasn’t named Ford. He was dazzling in his ability to make things happen, to be constantly in the limelight, to somehow escape the Ford Curse. But it didn’t last forever. His luck ran out in the 1970s, and Henry Ford II fired him in mid-1978, saying, “I just don’t like you.”
Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/c12_0509_lee_iacocca/viewall.html#ixzz2e2XiFSRe
All of our vehicles are well maintained, none younger than 11 years old. My daily driver is a 2000 Chrysler 300M with 95,000 miles. It is smooth, comfortable, gets 28mpg highway. But it transmits road and wind noise like crazy, almost like there was no sound insulation at all.
I don’t know about other national parks, but in Grand Teton and Yellowstone, concessionaires are forbidden to sell bottled water anymore. Instead they are required to provided free water from taps at their facilities and they sell large heavy plastic bottles for re-use.
2577 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 1:37 pm
Ending a sentence with a preposition is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.
Death ray buildings.
Funny post on John Crowley’s blog.
368 chars
A.Riley said on September 5, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Plain old Chicago tap water straight out of the faucet for me, all day every day. We have a Brita filter pitcher in the refrig and spouse makes coffee with that, but if it’s just me, right out of the kitchen spigot. Surely the folks at the waterworks have run the H2O through plenty of bigger better filters along the way to our house.
335 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Mittens RMoney is gone, but his douchebagism continues to thrive. And while this may seem like kicking a guy when he’s down, I’m fairly sure that’s the sort of thing Willlard does regularly.
341 chars
Charlotte said on September 5, 2013 at 2:10 pm
There’s starting to be pretty good evidence that the plastic bottles off gassing chemicals into your water is pretty toxic. I boughtone of the fancy retro soda siphons a decade or so ago, and use it all the time. Only problem is that the 2 remaining Hungarian factories that made therm have closed, so replacement parts are now a problem.
338 chars
alex said on September 5, 2013 at 2:10 pm
One thing the Chicago waterworks doesn’t get rid of is lime. My faucets and fixtures used to get covered with crud and my drinking glasses were all cloudy.
These days drinking from a well. At first the water was putrid — rust color, egg fart smell, particulate sediment — until I junked my Culligan system and installed a WaterBoss. Love my water now.
413 chars
brian stouder said on September 5, 2013 at 2:56 pm
Hmmmmm…this Michigan issue (from the current issue of an industry newsletter) could be a hard issue to ‘bridge’
http://www.chem.info/news/2013/09/gas-development-boom-unlikely-michigan?et_cid=3463620&et_rid=44004269&location=top#.UijQI8brzNs
notice all the contradictory sentences in this excerpt:
But the vast networks of waterways that interconnect Michigan’s landscapes would make it difficult to contain major spills, erosion or nutrient releases caused by fracking itself or construction of support infrastructure such as roads, he said. Fears that fracking chemicals injected deep underground will flow upward and contaminate drinking water supplies are “grossly overblown,” said John Wilson, a university consultant who wrote the technology report. A more legitimate concern is the handling of polluted water that returns to the surface, he said, although Michigan requires its disposal in underground wells and efforts are underway to re-use more of it.
what?
996 chars
Deborah said on September 5, 2013 at 3:05 pm
The tap water at Beaver Brook was heavenly, ice cold well water. Chicago tap water tastes OK to me. Santa Fe tap water seems OK too. I always use plain old tap water when I make coffee. We will be drilling a well in Abiquiu, for phase 2 of our building project. We’ll have to have one of those reverse osmosis systems that people have out there for potable water. For phase 1 we will have to buy potable water in giant bottles at Bodes, the local general store out there. Those bottles are plastic, but refillable. We will catch rain water for the occasional shower. We’ll have to boil it for dishwashing. And the boiling will be done on a cast iron stove inside in the winter and a propane camp stove in the summer. Fun.
721 chars
Sherri said on September 5, 2013 at 3:20 pm
I use my favorite water bottle (http://www.gocontigo.com/autoseal-water-bottle-24-oz.html) and fill up with filtered water from my fridge. I do have a weakness for fizzy water, though, and go through a lot of it. There’s new technology for DIY carbonation; maybe it’s time for me to switch.
290 chars
BigHank53 said on September 5, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Disguised vehicles do make it out onto the public roads every now and them. Last fall I saw a caravan of three Corvette mules on Rt. 219 in West Virginia. (GM has a lot of neat things at their various test centers, but one thing Michigan lacks is a 4 mile long 9% grade.) Arizona and New Mexico get visits for hot-weather testing, too.
I can taste the chlorine in a lot of tap water. We sprang for a reverse osmosis system, which is overkill, but it is now plumbed into the kitchen sink. Kohler makes a fancy faucet with a separate teeny little tap for filtered water–a luxury item that’s worth every nickel of the $280 they sock you for.
642 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 4:44 pm
Whether or not you like Lou Reed and/or Elvis Costello, or you know you dislike or like both (I have to say, I find it difficult to understand somebody that buys Elvis and not Lou), if you have Netflix streaming, a hidden gem is this episode of Declan’s talk show. Remarkable guest appearance by Julian Schnabel, and Elvis back to his roots, to some extent. Surprised they didn’t discuss being married to famous and accomplished recording stars. And it is so cool that Lou is a raconteur these days and not fried as he might have been. The songwriting discussion is a little fishy, because I get the feeling Elvis can knock ’em out like a gerbil making babies, while it’s easy to believe Sweet Jane was just a direct bolt from the ether. The ep with the Police that follows is pretty good too.
896 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Whether or not you like Lou Reed and/or Elvis Costello, or you know you dislike or like both (I have to say, I find it difficult to understand somebody that buys Elvis and not Lou), if you have Netflix streaming, a hidden gem is this episode of Declan’s talk show. Remarkable guest appearance by Julian Schnabel, and Elvis back to his roots, to some extent. Surprised they didn’t discuss being married to famous and accomplished recording stars. And it is so cool that Lou is a raconteur these days and not fried as he might have been. The songwriting discussion is a little fishy, because I get the feeling Elvis can knock ’em out like a gerbil making babies, while it’s easy to believe Sweet Jane was just a direct bolt from the ether. The ep with the Police that follows is pretty good too.
Re: the Elvis and Lou tape, it’s pretty funny to think about Yes guys hanging with Lou Reed.
992 chars
Dexter said on September 5, 2013 at 4:49 pm
We had a meeting at work with a tech expert back in the late 80s, who described the K cars as “the only cars in history we are getting paid to buy”. It was true…huge rebates and incentives made it easy to buy these cars if you had any sort of income. My friend Earl bought one from Glenbrook Dodge, and I remember we all made fun of him for buying such a horrible car. Earl didn’t car, he loved that car.
409 chars
Prospero said on September 5, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Actually, if you let the Lou Reed episode of Elvis’ show run into the one with Andy Summers, you see who was one of the two musical champs in The Police, followed by Stuart Copeland, the best musician in that band. And Roxanne is an instant button-pusher song.
Big Hank: RO is as pure as man can make it. Lab grade. It may come in handy when some MF lets monsters of capitalism foul all of the aquifers. The greatest natural resource the USA has isn’t coal, it’s water. Anybody that doesn’t get that is a blockhead or brain-dead.
532 chars
Julie Robinson said on September 5, 2013 at 5:29 pm
Some family members got a frig that has a fizzy water dispenser. It was no doubt pricey, but they’re in hot-hot Florida, and with a squeeze of lime juice, it’s their preferred refreshment. It’s intriguing to me, and I hope to check it out in person, say in February. Will report back!
284 chars
Sherri said on September 5, 2013 at 5:47 pm
I’m off to check out car-melting buildings and other wonders of London. My husband and I are celebrating empty-nestedness with two weeks in London, and our plane leaves in a few hours. I’ll have internet capability, so I’m sure I’ll drop in occasionally, but I plan on being busy!
280 chars
MarkH said on September 5, 2013 at 5:53 pm
We see them out here a lot for winter testing as well, BigHank. Subaru shows up every other year and when I sold Subies, they would rent a section of our service facility for about a week and work well into the evening evaluating each day’s road test data. We got to see the upcoming vehicles and sometimes they’d let us in on the next technological developments. You never saw so many wires and test meters. We were always impressed at how seriously the factory guys took all this stuff.
Earlier this summer was the first time I had seen disguised mules out here, though. They were from GM, really well-camouflaged new SUV types and when asked about them, the tech guys just turned and smiled.
697 chars
ROGirl said on September 5, 2013 at 6:21 pm
New York City has really good tap water.
40 chars
paddyo' said on September 5, 2013 at 6:40 pm
The bottled-water debate is an old and settled one at some of our national parks (Grand Canyon and Saguaro in AZ, Zion in UT, Hawai’i Volcanoes, to name a few). Those parks have installed refilling stations and had concessionaires in the visitor center gift shops remove single-use/disposable bottled water-for-sale from their shelves and vending machines.
There has been predictable blowback from the bottled water industry (which is to say, from Coke and other big soft-drink makers), and the Park Service bosses have made it a park-by-park decision. But the ones that have gone “green” sell inexpensive reusable water bottles (like, $1.50-$3 inexpensive). As I write this, I’m sipping from a nicer ($12) Grand Canyon-logo metal Green Bottle. Or, you can BYOBottle — hell, you can even bring-your-own-disposable-bottled-water, purchased at “gateway communities” outside the parks’ gates.
956 chars
David C. said on September 5, 2013 at 7:02 pm
The weirdness of bottled water never fails me. A while ago, I had some Niagara water. It was bottled in Ontario… …California. I forget what the brand was, but one of the more upscale ones is nothing but Montreal municipal water.
233 chars
LAMary said on September 5, 2013 at 8:52 pm
Ontario, California is not a place I would associate with clear running spring water. There’s an outlet mall and an airport there. I think there’s a brewery somewhere in the vicinty. That might be connected to the bottled water.
The ad I’ve been seeing lately for Nestle water kills me. The point it makes is that soda is fattening and you need to help your family get healthy, so go buy some stupid Nestle water for them to drink instead of soda. Buy it. Don’t get it from the tap.
In the big Latino supermarket in my neighborhood I see families I’m guessing are pretty low income buying cases of little bottles of water. There are also water stores in low income neighorhoods where you can bring your empty 5 or 10 gallon jugs to fill with water. I suspect they are preying people from places where you genuinely can’t drink the tap water. A friend who worked in immigrant services told me that the water stores are selling plain tap water. Nothing special is done to it.
979 chars
brian stouder said on September 5, 2013 at 9:44 pm
Sherri – here’s wishing you clear skies and a pleasant tail-wind!
Indeed, I look forward to hearing your top-3 favorite things (and your bottom-3 least favorite things).
172 chars
Judybusy said on September 5, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Sherri–have a wonderful time! What a great way to celebrate becoming empty-nesters!
84 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 5, 2013 at 10:09 pm
Paddyo’, the Scouts have done the same thing at Philmont. Lots of places to fill your Nalgene or Camelbak, but no bottled water a’tall.
135 chars
Kim said on September 5, 2013 at 11:09 pm
One of my friends in college inherited his parents’ K-car and, over time, we began to call it “the car that saved America.”
Pros, I have been in SC all week and was trying in vain to think of someone I know who lives here – although I know you but virtually, your reminder today counts. Thanks – I was feeling like a stranger in a strange land.
348 chars
Crazycatlady said on September 5, 2013 at 11:37 pm
Beb!(AKA Mr. Typo) Nancy is right. ‘Sight’ refers to vision, ‘Site’ refers to place! Please stand down, sir.
108 chars
Dexter said on September 6, 2013 at 2:04 am
My younger brother is 57 and just this week was bragging how he has yet to buy a single bottle of water, but on extremely hot days he has drunk bottled water provided by employers. I know I have bought water at times, but it’s been very rarely. I buy a bottle of Powerade or G-Series Gatorade after I mow the yard, and save the bottles and use them hundreds of times , refilling from my kitchen sink tap.
We have excellent water; the city has four artesian wells providing the water. Montpelier, Ohio, just north of us, draws water from aquifers and processed it so perfectly that they have won numerous competitions for “world’s best water”.
LA has won that contest before, and RO Girl is right, NYC has excellent drinking water from the tap. Fracking may soon destroy all that. The HBO documentary was damning.
My favorite water bottle that I have used for about five years is a “green”, safe bottle, but I love those sippy-top Gatorade bottles. After a year I recycle them, generally.
I live in tomato growing country. There are many farms here employing migrant workers. I see migrants shopping at Walmart, wheeling out as many cases of bottled water as the carts will hold. I would think by now that the farm owners would provide water buffaloes , which are these giant plastic tanks of potable water for the tomato pickers. Guess not.
My favorite water bottle story was publicized by Don Imus about ten years ago. He was drinking only DaSani , and it was found that the London, England DaSani was coming from rusted pipes , from London’s main water supply.
DaSani isn’t the only bottled water from Coca-Cola Corporation. They own a company called Hellenic, which bottles and distributes 136 brands in 28 countries with an output of 2.1 billion case units. Amazing.
1798 chars