Water, water everywhere, but not a drop for free
One of the strange games I play with myself is called...well, it doesn't really have a name, but the boringly descriptive one would be, "What Would Someone From The Past Think?" The rules are self-explanatory, but I'll explain for them anyway: you wonder (without ever getting an answer, obviously) what if a person from the past were suddenly time-warped and dropped in today's world with no other information than the year, what would they would think of various things.
I wonder if someone from 200 years ago was dropped in the middle of Washington DC if they would be amazed at the smell of the air, and if it would be terrible for them or much improved. They almost certainly would be struck dumb by the noise. I wonder if someone from 100 years ago would be unbelieving that football was more popular than baseball. And I'm sure all of the technology would seem absolutely incredible to them, but would it be in a way that they never could have possibly seen coming, or would it seem like a logical (though fascinating) evolution? For instance, if we could go 200 years in the future and find that there are large cities on the moon, we wouldn't really be that surprised, but we sure as hell would want to see them.
This game has popped up in my head often over the last few weeks, as my office has moved into the soul-sucking, spirit-crushing confines of Crystal City. In the first few days, I didn't trust that the water in our office was filtered (long, uninteresting story), so I was buying bottled water, and besides discovering that the cost of bottled water varies very widely (20oz is $1.50 at some places, while you can get a liter for .25 less than that at others), I stopped to wonder what a person from even 50 years in the past would think of this bottled water development. Most likely, they would think something like this:
"The water coming out of the pipes is so bad you won't even drink it?! People in the future BUY water?! Why?! And it costs HOW MUCH?! You pay as much for water as you do for Coke?! The future is so horrible and dangerous that even water is untrustworthy! Take me home!"
Then we'd explain the internet to them and take a tour through the hundreds of channels we have on TV and they'd collapse in amazed exhaustion, but the water questions would remain.
6 comments:
3 questions:
Question 1.
I play that game all the time, too!
Question 2.
Coke is often priced the same way, $1.50 for 20 oz. and $.25 less for a liter (or two). That has always made sense to me, though, because if you buy two liters of Coke, you'll have a hard time drinking it all before it goes flat. Water starts out flat (assuming it's flat water, that is), so the only thing you're paying for with the higher price is the convenience of carrying around less water. Which is kind of dumb.
Question 3.
Why buy water when you can buy Coke?
That is to say: Coke has water in it, so all the sugar and carbonation is just gravy.
The thing with water pricing happens in some places in Holland as well. I'll ask for a small bottle of water only for the person to say to me, do you want the large one? It's the same price. If you don't want the larger one, they look at you like you're lost your mind.
I'd like to know why the water in your building is suspect. Is it bacuase there might be mind-controling properties left over from when it was a govt. office?
I too play that game! And I also go forward into the future, when water will be like oil. People will pay even more!
hey reid, thanks for keeping it clean man. we don't need to know about All THE games you play with yourself. just drink the free DC leaded water for a REAL game!
happy MLKjr day.
pk
Hans: Are you saying that Coke is made from gravy? I don't understand.
Jen: the story is more boring than long. I just don't really trust tap water anymore, so we moved to the new offices and there was apparently some new filtering system in the sinks, so it is filtered, but I was used to the little machine. And it still seems wrong to get my glasses of water from the tap, but it was getting too expensive (and too wasteful) to keep buying it.
Lisa, that's why I'm stockpiling water for the day when it's scarce. It means that I don't have any room in my apartment anymore, because the water's taking up all the space, but it'll be worth it when I'm a millionaire water baron.
PK, I did consider the giggle factor of using the term "play with myself", but I'm on a crusade to take back useful phrases that have been rendered useless by their sexual connotations. I will no longer be shamed when saying I want a tossed salad! I want to be able to describe a football play by saying, "He was coming in his face" or "he was taken from behind"! I want to live free from the shackles of giggles!
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