The Green Green Gas of Home

There was a song during the '70's, called "The Green Green Grass of Home." It was recorded by Porter Wagonner and Bobby Bare in the '60's, but Tom Jones' version was the one that hit the charts.


I wonder if anyone dare re-record it as a parody to the current state of the economy with gasoline prices north of $3/Gallon. I thought about this as I was filling up the tanks this weekend…no, I don’t drive a tank.

I mean filling the tanks of our family fleet: An '07 Mazda MX-5 "Miata", and an '07 Jeep Commander. Combined, my average MPG is a respectable 22.5
Filling the tank on the Silver Bullet at three-quarters empty cost $30 to hit “F” on the gauge.
I forgoed (forewent?) the car wash.


My brides’s Jeep Commander, which some would classify as a tank, but it’s really a dolled-up Grand Cherokee, still takes a General Grant to fill’er up.
I do predict $4/gal gasoline for the high-test sometime this summer.


There’s a story out this morning about prescription drug residue showing up in the drinking water of several metropolitan areas. We have received a partial list of the cities and the drugs they’re ingesting, which now makes several things all come together. This is a story that's going to yield rich returns for late night talk show comedy writers, but there is an opportunity for investors, too. I predict things are going to heat up for water bottlers, filtration companies, and water transports…

The Associated Press says in Philadelphia, 56 pharmaceuticals or by-products in treated drinking water included medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. They may need to change Philly's slogan to "the City of Brotherly Antibiotics."


There were anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications detected in some of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California, which may account for the laid-back attitude in that part of the country.

A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.
The report doesn’t say which one.
Not that it would matter. (Rim-shot)


The U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a a water treatment plant in the Passaic Valley which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey. They found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
Wonder what the heart-attack incident rate is there?


The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals. Don't even go there.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va. said tests were negative.


The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.



Houston’s water supply has not been tested.
They'll probably find those little Amazing Sea Monkeys swimming around in the sample.