I have long regarded bottled-water users as fashion victims with more money than sense. Now that it as been pointed out to most of us that the glut of plastic bottles produced by this craze is an ecological threat, I have even lower regard for them.

The bottles are, of course, recyclable, but that doesn't mean that many of them ever actually get recycled. Most go into regular trash receptacles and then to landfills.

Not that I believe tap water to be perfectly OK. Over the years, I've bought plenty of 5-gallon bottles of spring and/or filtered water to use with a standard dispenser, and currently drink and cook only with water that has been run through the filtration system built into my refigerator's icemaker.

But there's no way in hell I'll pay the price of a soft drink ~ which is overpriced enough, but which at least contains some food value and flavoring in addition to H20 ~ for a bottle of "designer water."

And also: about those water bottles with the nifty caps, which can of course be refilled over and over with tap water or home-filtered water ~ I've never known one to wear out. I lose 'em first.