From the seen it all now dept.

A Wall Street Journal article yesterday alerted our friend Ben to a new craze in New York City. A specialty shop had opened that sold NYC residents… NYC tap water. Of course, this wasn’t any old tap water. It had been run through a $25,000 purifier before going on sale at a premium price. And the kicker: Discriminating palates could tell a huge difference in the taste of the before-and-after tapwater.

Well, what New Yorker doesn’t want to be discriminating? Who cares that Smirnoff vodka has come out ahead of every mega-expensive brand in every taste test ever done, even when vodka experts were involved? Surely if your palate was discriminating, you’d immediately taste the difference in this fabulous water. Otherwise, you’re just some poor slob who can’t tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. You might as well slink home and drink your water straight from the tap.

Admittedly, our friend Ben can taste a huge difference between Coke and Pepsi: Pepsi is a lot sweeter and a lot less carbonated than Coke. Maybe I’d be able to tell that the chlorine and other chemicals had been filtered out of the NYC tapwater supply by that $25,000 machine, too. But sheesh. Paying for tapwater? Only in New York. I hope.