Posted on 10/22/2005 9:07:47 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Water – don't leave home without it
October 22nd, 2005
I see my wife leaving the house to go to the supermarket, which is just about a 2 minute drive. In one hand she has the car keys and in the other she's grasping a plastic bottle of water. "Are you expecting to go shopping in the Sahara Desert?" I asked with a grin.
"Oh, you mean this?" she responded, holding the jug of liquid aloft.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you're going on a safari or if you planned on coming home sometime this week," I said, still smirking.
"Don't be silly," she replied with a frown. "You know how important water intake is."
"Well, yes, food is important too, but I don't see you carrying a couple of sandwiches with you every time you leave the house" I retorted with the slightest hint of sarcasm.
The selling of bottled water ranks as one of the most adroit marketing schemes ever to insinuate itself into the psyches of the American consumer. Undoubtedly, about 30 years ago, some whiz kid came up with the idea of using clever marketing to get premium prices for a product that everyone could get for free in homes, restaurants and office buildings in every city in the country. Europeans had already been buying bottled mineral water from famous spas for some time, after all. In the old days of unhealthy tap water, this might have made sense.
Before we were all lulled into thinking that tap water is dirty, smelly, impure and unhealthy, we couldn't have imagined the day would come when we'd pay for it like soda pop, juice or milk. Moreover, we never imagined that people would become so attached to their water supply that they would never leave home without a full canteen, as their ancestors did when they were slogging through the desiccated prairies in wagon trains.
It all began with the selling of water filters for home use. Network marketing companies became very effective in spreading the message by word of mouth that the "impurities" in tap water were the cause of several maladies. We were introduced to terms like, "reverse osmosis filtration, carbon pressed purification," and "oxygen reinforced sluicing." All designed to sound scientific and just esoteric enough to confuse as well as captivate a gullible public.
It worked even better than could have been expected. The home filtration systems could turn out a liter of water for a few pennies, when based on the cost of the apparatus and the volume of water it "purified" during the life of the system. Soon, however, it became apparent that people on the go would pay even more for a portable supply. Hence, a new idea was born; tell the public that the filtering would be done at the factory and sell the fluid over the counter in bottles. Furthermore, make it appear chic to have a ubiquitous supply of H20 in the hands of a perpetually parched public. Voila! Today, it's a $9 billion business and growing.
On a recent 60 Minutes segment, Andy Rooney lampooned the issue. "One of the most popular brands, Poland Spring water, isn't Polish; it's from Poland Spring, Maine. A pint costs $1.35 in the CBS cafeteria. Now just think about that. There are eight pints in a gallon, so if your car ran on water instead of gas and you had to fill a 15-gallon tank with this, it would cost $162 to fill your tank with water," said the CBS curmudgeon. Mr. Rooney took some of the bottles to a testing laboratory called Yorktown Environmental Services to see what was in them.
"From all the waters I've seen that are bottled waters, and I probably haven't tested all of them, but they are very much dead water…. They have nothing in them. I drink tap water," says lab owner and water expert Al Padovani. In addition, the authority on water said, "The water that you get out of a municipal supply or a well supply has more chemicals that the body needs."
Rooney said he works on the same floor with a staff of about 60 people, and just about everyone has a bottle of water on his/her desk. "It's like a security blanket, it's always there," he said. "And, they carry it wherever they go." He added, "Out by the elevator, there's a water fountain. The water is cooled, very good and the filter is changed regularly. I have never seen anyone drink this free water." Such is the genius of marketing. Keep in mind; we're now being told that our air is not pure. Soon, we may all be wearing surgical masks like Michael Jackson.
.............................
Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the excutive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas. BobWeir777@aol.com
I hear the same from man's best friend.
yeah, i've had some of my "motivational stories" shot to pieces by my wife too
Some people have drowned to death after drinking too much water. This happens to people who have perspired a lot and avoided salt.
Well, when I was in Dallas, there was some time that something happened (algae in bloom) and the tap water smelled and tasted awful. I think that is what did me in.
In California when my kids were babies, my husband installed a flter on our kitchen faucet. The water tasted much better.
We moved last year, and we are back to bottled or tap water. The tap is okay, but the bottled water tastes better. Even my kids can taste a difference.
I carried water around when I was pregnant with twins. I was having contractions early, and I was supposed to drink 16 oz of water if I started having contractions.
Our tap water is not floridated.
Thanks, smoothsailing, same to you.
I only drink when I'm thirsty and that pretty much works out for me. I hardly ever drink straight water either. Basically the only things I ever drink is coffee, tea (iced), Propel and beer.
Somedays I'll only have a couple cups of coffee during the day and a couple of beers at night. Supposedly these are all diuretics that actually make you dehydrated. But that doesn't happen to me. Like somebody said earlier in this thread, most foods are made up of mostly water. Being that I pretty much only each natural foods and don't eat a lot of salted foods, I evidently get the water I need from food.
I work with people who drink bottled water constantly all day long. If that works for them, power to them. But I see them constantly going in and out of the bathroom. Having to pee 15 times a day doesn't appeal to me that much!
I will sell you some wonderful West Texas Hard Water, with or without rocks for $2.00 plus $12.99 S&H(it weights more than regular water).
Propel is basically a "low-carb" version of Gatorade. I started drinking that when I started watching the carbs in my diet. I found it nasty at first but I've gotten used to it and actually prefer it over Gatorade, which I now find way too sugary for my taste.
Al Gore promised to go after 'big water' but Dubya just seems to ignore it. Go figure.
Our well water here in the Ozarks is from a spring I do believe. It tasted soooo good. No lime "flavor" at all or other minerals.
Ours is.
He's 32 now and when he stops by all he wants to drink is my beer!
It's Bush's fault, Haliburton owns all the water! ;)
Interesting fact. Up until modern times, plain water was considered impure and had to be "purified" by adding wine or spirits. Cider and rum were the main drinks of Colonial America until beer came to be made in sufficient quantities.
"I was supposed to drink 16 oz of water if I started having contractions."
I never heard that. Hmph. Ya learn something ever day.
How does water affect contractions?
"Well, as long as he doesn't overdo it, beer is better for him than the Gatorade!"
When I was an athlete, back in the early 14th century, we would be riding our dinosaurs back from a competition and I would get terrible leg cramps. Sometimes knots would jump up at my knee and run up my thigh like a mouse or something.
It wasn't conditioning; I could carry a 40 pound pack up a mountain without cracking a sweat.
I started drinking Gatorade, and that stopped happening. Started winning more competitions, too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.