WATER BARS

[bear60]

I keep seeing advetisements for these establishments (mostly in New York City).  I thought the height of decadence was a "Martini Bar" where you pay 8 to 12 dollars for a martini.  Now, the latest decadence is this WATER BAR, where you can order a drink of your favorite designer label water.  I mean, come on folks, at least at a martini bar you are getting something for your money.
Whats next :  AIR BARS...well actually "OXYGEN BARS" where you pay for a hook up on an oxygen tank for whatever they charge per minute.
I am so glad I wont be around much longer to see what frivolity will be sold to an ever gullible public.

Bear ( who remembers when cars ran on gas at less than a dollar a gallon and water and air were free)
modified to add:  who else here does NOT have a cell phone?

[Miss Philicia]

I think oxygen bars already exist in Tokyo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

Things like this are luxury items, like buying a Birkin bag they are not supposed to really make any sense.

[GSOgymrat]

I'm happy to see a move away from bottled water. Seems Joe Public has realized that the same stuff comes out of your tap for free and that the bottles are just a big waste.

[Miss Philicia]

Cell phones aren't really frivolous.  I don't pay for a land line myself, and only use a cell.

[Dan J.]

I think i heard on the news recently that bottled water producers will have to disclose where they get their water from. Aquafina (which is produced by Pepsi) gets theirs from a public water source. Here in TN we are lucky to have good tasting tap water so I keep some bottled in the fridge & take it with me when I go run around. Why pay 1.29 a bottle when it's cheaper from the tap?

Dan
(who doesn't drink Gucci water)

[Miss Philicia]

A little googling revealed to me that one of the $55 bottles of water must travel 3 hours by private yacht in Canada from its exclusive source and then is placed in a bottle frosted with Swarovski crystals.  Paris Hilton uses it for her dogs.

[milker]

I have recently installed a water cooler at home and got a subscription with ArrowHead. I'm VERY pleased with it, it tastes very good, and I've been drinking way more water since I've installed it than when I had to drink tap water, which is not bad but not as "fresh" as the water coming from the dispenser.

And there is the bubble sound, so it makes me think i'm in an office (I work @ home). I just need to start water cooler conversations with my dog, now.

Milker.

PS: My dog drinks tap water, but likes the bubbly sound of the water cooler.

[Dan J.]

The skank with cash spends 55.00 on a bottle of water for her dogs? I would hate to know what she spends to hose out that nasty crevice between her legs...

[milker]

The skank with cash spends 55.00 on a bottle of water for her dogs? I would hate to know what she spends to hose out that nasty crevice between her legs...

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww 

[GSOgymrat]

My water comes from a well. I have a friend who brings 8 empty milk jugs and fills up from my tap every week or two. She just likes it better than city water.

[Dachshund]

Suckers! 95% of bottled water is produced, bottled and sold by Pepsico, Nestle and of course Coca-Cola. It is no better or pure than the stuff you get from the tap, but they spend millions convincing you that it is. At the same time they continue to buy up as many public water rights as possible and make them private. In the future-if there is one-wars are more likely to fought over water than oil. I'm with Bear, I'm glad I won't be here.

[bear60]

I understand that some folks have ONLY cell phones.....but I still have my beloved land line and this is the phone next to my bed.  I can always find it because its not small enough to be lost in the laundry or a coat pocket and when 911 is dialed they know where you are. I cant carry it off and leave it where it doesnt belong like the other phones in the house that are "portable".
 

[milker]

I understand that some folks have ONLY cell phones.....but I still have my beloved land line and this is the phone next to my bed.  I can always find it because its not small enough to be lost in the laundry or a coat pocket and when 911 is dialed they know where you are. I cant carry it off and leave it where it doesnt belong like the other phones in the house that are "portable".

and you can actually clearly hear what the other party says..

Milker.

[Miss Philicia]

I actually own a DIAL land line phone.  It's an antique I had re-wired in college and it still works.  Though now that I come to think of it I have no clue where I packed it away.  

This hostility towards cell phones reminds of my parents (until they finally broke down and bought them).

[Cerrid]

and you can actually clearly hear what the other party says..

Milker.

You're not suggesting that cell phones are for talking, are you milker? They're for texting, for showing off, for annoying the environment with very bad ring tone charts, for taking mirror pics of one's own bare chest because there's nobody around who will take them otherwise, and eventually quite useful as an alarm to remind one when to take the meds... but for talking? Very funny! 

[bear60]

I love antique phones. My friend Charlotte had a phone that looked like a high heel shoe.  Since I suppose I am your parents age, Philly, I give them credit for holding out as long as they did. Actually I think its Kurt who wants one even less than I do.  He used to work for Bell of PA and .....
 Well, it just occured to me that my 80's phone looks like it was designed by the same team that designed this:

[pozattitude]

unless it is bottled from a spring at the source I don't get it...well, it is the latest American fad....
I just have a PUR water filter in the kitchen sink...it kills the bacteria, germs, takes the chlorine away and the water tastes damned good and a lot cheaper.

now as far as

The skank with cash spends 55.00 on a bottle of water for her dogs? I would hate to know what she spends to hose out that nasty crevice between her legs...

I don't think she hoses that,  maybe she used the dog .... 

I tried just having a cell, but it didn't work for me.  I usually forget to turn the ringer back on or I can't find the thing...land line turned out to be a necessity.

[milker]

I actually own a DIAL land line phone.  It's an antique I had re-wired in college and it still works.  Though now that I come to think of it I have no clue where I packed it away. 

This hostility towards cell phones reminds of my parents (until they finally broke down and bought them).

I had one like this (but orange):

I saw an oxygen bar at the gay pride, not far from the hiv testing van. I wonder if there was any relation between the two...

Milker.

[pozattitude]

Oh my, I forgotten about those oxygen bars,
we had one in South Beach...what a joke!!! 
If I am going to pay to inhale gas, I want it to be nitrous ...
Rich
(who gets nitrous at the dentist)

[Miss Philicia]

Joel, my old roomie in NYC has a version of the land line phone you posted but it's in special clear plastic so you can see all the innards of the phone.  I wonder if it still works.  She bought it in college from the same place I bought mine... I should snag it from her because I know she does not use it.

[Miss Philicia]

Someone should open an Ethyl Chloride bar.

[GSOgymrat]

What kept me away from cell phones was that I don't want to be accessible all the time. I got a cell phone for when I am on-call for work but otherwise don't use it that much. I'm the type of person who won't answer the telephone if I'm eating, watching a movie, etc. and I don't have a telephone in my bedroom so I won't be awakened. If it's important they will leave a message on the answering machine. A guy with a Blue Tooth in their ear is like a dog on a leash.

I also feel there is generational divide between people who text message and people, like myself, who don't. I just don't understand the appeal of texting.

[Matty the Damned]

Bottle watered is an outrageous ripoff.

It astonishes Matty the Damned when people who live in developed countries eschew top quality (and practically free) tap water for some bottled concoction claiming to be the "purest tears of the Pyrenees" or what-the-fuck-ever. Drinking bottled water when you're on holiday raiding the fleshpots of the third world might make sense, but not when your frittering away your pointless days in Sydney/New York/London or, God forbid, Paris.

And don't tell me it's about taste - in a blinded test, I'd wager not one of you perfumed fops would be able to tell the difference between Evian, Aquafina, Chateau Reservoir or the runoff from a cattle dip.

But it's not the pretentious, limp wristed prissiness of drinking bottled water that irritates me so much, it's social and environmental irresponsibility of it. Think of the costs associated with the production, packaging, transportation and other energy/carbon intensive factors that go into ensuring that you can sip the gentle nectar taken from a spring in the cave of the Bhutanese Ice Leopard. Or the waste when the bottle is thrown away.

Not just that but raiding important natural springs can lead to other environmental consequences, such as depleting natural aquifers, raising water tables and promoting soil salinity.

For shame!

MtD

[pozattitude]

What kept me away from cell phones was that I don't want to be accessible all the time. I got a cell phone for when I am on-call for work but otherwise don't use it that much. I'm the type of person who won't answer the telephone if I'm eating, watching a movie, etc. and I don't have a telephone in my bedroom so I won't be awakened. If it's important they will leave a message on the answering machine. A guy with a Blue Tooth in their ear is like a dog on a leash.

I also feel there is generational divide between people who text message and people, like myself, who don't. I just don't understand the appeal of texting.

LOL...I was beginning to think I was the only person who doesn't answer the phone...LOL

My mother bitches at me constantly..."you never pick up the phone"... I am with you GSO...I will not stop a meal or a movie to answer the phone.
and I don't get the people who just seem lost without a cell phone...I think it is scary how people on a plane can't wait  to turn their phones on, even before the light and bell go off you can hear those damned phone turning on, and the drivers?.....i know people who "need" to talk on the phone as soon as they get in the car...what the hell? now the funny thing in California is that they made it a law to wear an ear piece if talking on the phone while driving, but you can text message as much as you want..HELLO...where is the logic here?

Rich
(who is never amazed at the stupidity of  law makers)

[jack]

read a study this summer that concluded tap water was better than bottled water. So I thought if hilarious when I was in Vancouver last week and read an article about Aquafina admitting that their bottled water was just regular tap water and studies had shown it superior to well or mineral water.

[Miss Philicia]

Oh, I have no issues whatsoever switching my cell phone to "off."  As a pioneer of Treo technology 6 years ago I was at the very forefront of texting, in fact I couldn't find anyone to text with me because so few had the ability.  I'm very over texting by now and even shut if off from my service plan.  However, if was back working and on the subway a lot I would use it again -- it's quite a valuable use of time in such an instance.

Bluetooth headsets are generally atrocious looking and I'd never, ever own one.

[milker]

Someone should open an Ethyl Chloride bar.

Next to the Amyl Nitrite bar?

Milker.

[bear60]

A Soylent Green Bar?

[Basquo]

For years I've heard people complain about the price of bottled water compared to drinking from the tap where it's practically free, and I am thankful that at least I live in a place where I have the option to pay for that bottled water if I want to.

I'm wishy-washy on tap water.  I always believed my hometown water was the best, and would even drink it by the gallon when I visited from Austin.  The water here was okay, but that hometown water was the best!  When I moved in with my last live-in lover, he wanted a water cooler and I began to like having cool Ozarka water available in large quantities at home.  After a few years, I began smelling the chemicals in the hometown water I was raised on: Chlorine, maybe?  something else?  I can't stand it now.

Now I buy "Natural Spring Water" from my local grocer.  It's .69 a gallon. I do use tap water for making ice, for about 9 months out of the year:  for the last 4 years, a "harmless algae bloom" has occured in our local water source each fall, making the water smell of sulphur at best and rotten eggs at the worst.

Edited to say "rotten eggs," not "raw eggs."

[milker]

Pipes can play a role too, that's why a filter like Pur is a good idea even if the water from the city is of good quality. I know that if I drink tap water from the bathroom, it's okay, but if I drink it from the kitchen, it doesn't taste as good.

Milker.

[mjmel]

I certainly have come to trust bottled water more than our county supplied water --which varies in taste and sometimes color from month to month.
Once, it came out of the tap sort of a brownish color. We later learned the local fire department was using a nearby hydrant to flush their lines "and musta got mud in them lines."
I stick to bottle water for safety. I still cook and make coffee with the county water. As long as it reaches boiling temperature. Lately I have been thinking about environmentally unfriendly plastic that has to be created for all those little bottles of water.......and will likely change to larger dispenser type unit.
xxx,
Mike

[Oceanbeach]

I use to take the Blue Line to and from Los Angeles several times a week.  There was a bottling plant for one of the popular bottled waters on the way.  It looked more like filtering L.A. water than a mountain stream in the Rockies.

I did drink Arrowhead for a couple of years because my T-cells were under 100 and doctor felt I was at risk for crypto sporidium.  Arrowhead was the one company where the phone sales reps could answer my questions about Crypto, so I went with them.  I was taking Norvir when the dosage was 18 pills every day and a very large glass of water.  I hate water now and only drink it as a Scotch w/ water-back.  Have the best day
Michael
(who remembers swimming to a cocktail bar in Mazatlan and charging those drinks to his room)