Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock<\/small><\/p>\n
We need a barometer. It will predict when gasoline costs too much. Just under $3 a gallon here in the Arkansas Ozarks. Everyone complains, but while we’re driving perhaps more carefully, combining errand trips, topping off the tank, we’re not all buying scooters. We’re not demanding that Ozark Regional Transit expand 15-fold, although it is exploring commuter express routes.<\/a> We’re not promising a profit to the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad<\/a> to expand its coach service from weekend sightseeing tours<\/a> to weekday drive times.<\/p>\n The low end comprises the toothpaste squeezers, left over from parents or grandparents who lived in the Depression. How many minutes of your valuable morning are used to push the last goo from the Crest that cost less than 2 bucks? How much shower water runs without purpose while you mush the old soap sliver onto the crisp-cornered cake of 59-cent Dial?<\/p>\n The high end is heedless extravagance. The headline says it all for Gwendolyn Bounds’ “Small Business” column on B1 of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal<\/em> (subscription site): “After Bottled Water? Purified Ice Cubes.”<\/p>\n The story is comprehensive and thoroughly reported, quoting “manufacturers” likely retail buyers of this alleged product, industry association spokesmen and a nutritionist-economist. Gourmet ice is just being test-marketed at this point, but if bottled water can sell in America, ice must be an untapped market.<\/p>\n Icerocks, marketed as ‘secured spring water ice cubes,’ are set to hit the U.S. market in October. Four trays with slots for 12 cubes each will cost about $3.99. AquaICE sealed ice-cube trays — containing purified municipal tap water in plain, lemon and lime flavors — … costs about $5 for 50 cubes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The column isn’t clear if it’s displayed next to the Haagen Daz or in the beverage aisle where you have to freeze it yourself. Bet not the latter, when we now have microwave-ready macaroni and cheese for people who cannot boil water.<\/p>\n While public education and potable tap water are not in the Constitution, they are universal in America. The new ice, like bottled water, will be offered in flavors as well. Soda pop and frozen fruit bars, however, are categorized separately.<\/p>\n When we spend 15 minutes working out the last of the toothpaste, we’re showing obsessiveness. It didn’t save real money in the ’30s; it was one of the few things one could do to show you were trying. When we realize it’s idiotic to drive halfway across town to get a Wal-Mart price on gourmet ice, then we’ll know we’re hurting. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock We need a barometer. It will predict when gasoline costs too much. Just under $3 a gallon here in the Arkansas Ozarks. Everyone complains, but while we’re driving perhaps more carefully, combining errand trips, topping off the tank, we’re not all buying scooters. We’re not demanding that Ozark Regional Transit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/12\/wal-mart-takes-liberty-bell-to-arkansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":0},"title":"Wal-Mart takes Liberty Bell to Arkansas","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock A DISSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA -- The Liberty Bell is moving to America's heartland, specifically Bentonville, Ark., the National Park Service has announced. The bell, one of the nation's most prominent treasures, will be a permanent exhibit in the sculpture garden of the planned Crystal Bridges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"liberty bell 03 stress test","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/liberty-bell-03-stress-test-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2464,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/taking-a-constitutional\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":1},"title":"Taking a Constitutional","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What happens when a blogger, columnist or occasional writer dawdles is the the topic either gets away, gets old or gets stolen. Hats off to colleague John Brummett. As of Nov. 2, Arkansas has three fresh amendments to the Arkansas Constitution. That will make the 88th Amendment, 89th Amendment and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/05\/twin-double-feature\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":2},"title":"Twin Double-Feature","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott Shackelford wrote a thoughtful column for today's Northwest Arkansas Times, about a possibility we Ozarkers should make a pitch for: A cinema specializing in small films. Malco Theatres Inc., which has a number of multiplexes in the area, is building a 12-screener in Fayetteville just down from Northwest Arkansas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/05\/dixublican\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":3},"title":"Dixublican","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Stereotypes are tough. Arkansas can move right along, minding its own business with no Huckabee or Clinton (either of them) feeding the 24-hour international news cycle in at least 168 hours, when a politico from my northwestern part of the state, prominent only here, opens his yap. State Sen. Kim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":349,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/polishing-apples-in-arkansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":4},"title":"Polishing Apples in Arkansas","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the changes planned by the state Department of Education is to increase the teaching of world history by decreasing the time spent on Arkansas state history. The Legislature, however, mandated in 1997 one semester of state history between seventh and 12th grades. (The law and the new plan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":497,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/mallets-reforethought\/","url_meta":{"origin":220,"position":5},"title":"Mallets Reforethought","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The story of the June 14, 1986, croquet match played by former Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark was so memorable to me I did not bother to check the facts when I summarized it last week. I had documents, I kept them in a file -- a real manila paper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/croquet-0686-lg-res-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}