Saturday, June 14, 2008

Still more news you can use


Five useful bits of information to carry with you to tonight's cocktail party :

Why we shouldn't buy bottled water:
"Each year the bottles themselves require 17 million barrels of oil to manufacture, and, one expert tells Royte, “the total energy required for every bottle’s production, transport and disposal is equivalent, on average, to filling that bottle a quarter of the way with oil.” -- From tomorrow's New York Times review of Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, by Elizabeth Royte.

Dinks: Double Income, No Kids, or what eager California hoteliers and restaurateurs are calling gay couples of both genders as they prepare for the happy onslaught of same-sex weddings that officially begins Monday. (Various sources)

Something to think about when the flight attendant tries to charge you $2 for a bag of peanuts after you've paid $15 to check a suitcase: "For all the anti-airline vitriol, the industry's astonishingly impressive safety record is little acknowledged. Is safety not an aspect of airline customer service? Despite the financial havoc -- tens of billions of dollars in losses and five major carrier bankruptcies over the past eight years -- there has not been a serious accident involving a major U.S. airline since 2001. That's our longest streak since the dawn of the jet age." -- Patrick Smith in an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post.

Joe DiMaggio's old Chris-Craft, the historic boat aboard which he romanced Marilyn Monroe, is headed for Davy Jones's locker. (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Awwwwww!' animal-rescue story of the weekend.

2 comments:

  1. To balance out your rescued kitten story, here's another: Pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam through raging floodwaters and managed to climb onto a sandbag levee were...shot by sheriff's deputies.

    http://tinyurl.com/5t26hh

    Moral of the story: Don't call 911 if you're in trouble in Kingston, Iowa!

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  2. Well, Pete, the pigs eventually were going to become pork chops, and perhaps that came sooner than later.

    All the same, it's a sad ending to a tale of valor.

    ReplyDelete