We, the fine gentlemen who bring you SmallTimeHacks (sorry, ladies, it’s a closed club as sometimes men just enjoy the company of other men named after 19th century homosexuals), do not hate local newspaper columnists. Indeed, we are on their side. We want them to be better people.
Well, we probably care less about them as people, but we certainly want them to be better writers.
One of the main problems with bad local columnists is that they seem to believe that once they get the columnist gig, they are no longer reporters. This could not be further from the truth. The best columnists are always the ones who do the best research and conduct the best interviews, because they then have something to write about aside from their kids.
Heather Ziegler of the Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer has written a column about an interesting and timely subject but apparently wrote it during commercial breaks of “American Idol” on a computer without an internet connection.
Today, more and more Americans are talking about the idea of conservation whether it is water, gasoline or heating oil. The push is on to eliminate pollutants from air, water and earth. Recycling is a way of life now, not something other countries did.
I simply love columnists who discover twenty year trends and write about them as if they are a fad akin to Hannah Montana. Next to energy costs, “Going Green” is probably the number one issue in the business world at the moment. (Also, the subject-verb agreement in her paragraph is troubling to say the least).
Yes, a lot of Americans are trying to conserve so that some day our grandchildren and their children will be able to enjoy this planet’s bounty
We are good people. Go, us.
That’s why I found it so amusing, even laughable the other day. I saw a clip of Sen. Barack Obama sitting with others during his appearance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Thursday. As the thinkers and politicians put their heads together over the high price of energy, I could not help but notice that in front of all those speakers at the table were large, clear plastic bottles of water.
You know what, Heather? You are onto something interesting here. Is the fact that I am paying $4.07 a gallon for gas possibly related to the fact that I consume 4 or 5 bottles of water everyday? How much waste am I generating? You got me thinking, sport.
These weren’t just any bottles of water. They actually bored the name of the university in big, bold letters! Perhaps the university is making a statement with those bottles of water or it is simply another marketing attempt that leaves me flat
Any promotions company can do this pretty cheaply. You are losing the plot, honey.
Don’t get me wrong. I am as guilty as the next guy at enjoying the convenience of bottled water. An entire new industry has been dedicated to the bottled business in the form of powdered ice tea, lemonade and other flavorings that are neatly packaged to be dumped into single bottles of 16 to 20 ounces of water.
Um, are you going anywhere with this column?
I’ve been noticing more and more public service announcements that proclaim that plastic bottles will remain in our landfills or wherever they are tossed “forever.” Perhaps scientists have figured that out but I doubt if any will be around to prove their theories.
Ok, back on track. Here is where the research comes in. Here is the interview with someone at Waste Management. Or a scientist. Or a clerk at a Kwik-E-Mart.
While I sit on the fence on this plastic, bottled water issue I will tell you that freshly brewed ice tea outranks that powdered bottle stuff any day. A glass pitcher full of icy lemonade can’t be beat on a hot, humid day like today. Even Kool-Aid tastes better in a glass.
There apparently was a tree in the middle of the track. This is your final position? Middle of the road on bottled water yet decidedly pro-lemonade. Thank you for taking a stand for once in your life, Buford T. Kool-Aid Man.
I am going to give Heather some information that I found after 0.8 seconds of online research.
I learned from the New York Times that American consume 30 BILLION bottles of water each year. It is an $8 BILLION industry in the US alone, and it uses 1.5 million barrels of oil. Only 25 percent of the bottles are recycled, which means the rest find their way into landfills.
Don’t you think that one paragraph worth of real numbers would have improved this navel-gazing exercise just a smidge? Doesn’t it turn this from, “Gosh, I just don’t know what to think about those all those bottles of water” to “Here’s some startling information on bottled water?”
I’m just asking for a little effort, Heather. That’s all.
2 Comments
June 30, 2008 at 10:37 pm
“They actually bored the name of the university in big, bold letters!”
Is “bored” the paster tense of bore?
July 1, 2008 at 8:59 am
Paster perfecter tense.