"We're falling for something we shouldn't be falling for,'' said David Assmann, deputy director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, paper cup in hand. "You really can't tell the difference."...
"People buy a lot of things they don't need,'' he said. "I wouldn't call bottled water a swindle, exactly, but it's certainly something people are paying for without getting any benefit.''
Forgive me for going juvenile, but thanks, Assman, for telling me what I already know: I'm buying water. In a bottle. And, OOOOOOH, I'm paying for something I could get from the tap! But I'm not getting any benefit? None at all? I'm happy, Assman, that you, Cocklad, and Wonder Tit always have the forethought to fill up a water bottle before you leave the house so that if you get thirsty while fighting crime, you've got fresh water handy. Me? I drink from the tap at home and at work. It's chilled, filtered tap water, but it's tap water all the same. But when I'm out around the city, I don't want to hassle with carrying a giant water bottle around, so when I'm thirsty, I just find a street vendor and buy a bottle. There's the benefit. I buy it on the street so I don't have to schlep it around. I'm not a fucking rube, Chronicle. The only problem I have with it is that I'm buying yet another plastic bottle that'll probably wind up landfilled. Otherwise, I know what my buck-twenty-five is buying me: 16 oz. of bottled tap water, and guess what? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK.