#393 Builds Strong Bones And Teeth

#393 Builds Strong Bones And Teeth

They've got so much calcium in the water now that it makes spots on stuff that "can't" get spots. Like stainless steel cookware. Spots on the pots, and you can't scrub 'em out. You boil a pot of tea and the inside of the kettle is adolescent acne spotted for life. Try Brillo, lemon, soaking, even Clorox. It's there for life.

Those new stainless steel kitchen sinks? They aren't stainless. Either that or we have the world's strongest calcium.

Funny part about all this is that people have been running to get those filter gadgets, the ones that remove calcium and other stuff. Sometimes they even have plumbers and "water specialists" and water "consultants" come over and install special systems and under-sink filters and pumps to get rid of the calcium.

Once the calcium is removed, they promptly head to the vitamin store -- for calcium supplements.

Most of us think of water and, well, water.

But it isn't. It's as varied as there are places that produce it.

New England is getting a nice rep for good water. Poland Spring and others fill their bottles in places like Maine and New Hampshire. It's really no purer than the stuff that comes out of your tap, but we now have water snobs joining the wine snobs.

It won't be long before someone starts publishing "Water Spectator" or "Water Enthusiast" magazines to compete with the wine magazines.

And we can get into heated discussions about whether the waters of France and Spain and Italy are really better than the waters of California or New York.

In addition to wineries, there will be wateries. Boutique bottlers will spring up along side boutique vineyards on Long Island. Colorado will have to chime in with mountain spring waters. Hot Springs will bottle microwaveable servings of their stuff.

A whole new industry. But no calcium.

Water theme parks will charge more for admission to slosh rides that are fed by, say Niagara Falls, than they will for rides that are fed with water by pipes and plumbers.

And still, no calicum.

A war between Puget Sound and Long Island Sound, perhaps?

And desalinated water from (check as many as apply)

--The Red Sea
--The Dead Sea
--The Atlantic (choose north or south, please.)
--The Pacific (choose south or "regular," please.)
--The Mediterranean Sea
--The North Sea

Sooner or later, there's going to be a water cartel, OWEN, the Organization of Water Exporting Nations.

And you know who's going to be behind that one, right? Nestle, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the City of Newark and PepsiCo.

But it's not as dumb as it sounds -- or as dumb as you think.

Half the world is short of water. Especially some people who have more oil than brains.

Maybe we can get even.

And while we're at it, we can get rid of some of that nasty calcium that's been building up on our pots and in our filter systems.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®
©2008 WJR