Crescent City Clear

This weekend's failed infrastructure excitement had me reminiscing about this long-forgotten harebrained scheme of Ray Nagin's

"Clean," "clear" and "refreshing" may not be the first words that leap to mind when you think about New Orleans tap water.

Maybe that's why Mayor Ray Nagin's plan to bottle and sell the treated Mississippi River water that flows into Orleans Parish homes has met with some skepticism.

"Y'all think I'm playing," said Nagin, defending the plan to a chuckling audience as quickly as he announced it during his May 6 inauguration speech.

This month, he made clear he was not. Nagin directed the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans to form a committee to write a business plan for a new water bottling venture. The committee is to report back to the board in about two months.

Meanwhile, a pilot water bottling program will go forward. The board is paying Dixie Brewing Co. about $850 to fill 25,000 plastic, long-neck bottles with fresh tap water under the name "Crescent City Clear" for delegates of the National Water Works Association convention; the 15,000-member organization will hold its annual meeting in New Orleans June 16 to 20.

I remember Nagin joking about the name "Crescent City Clear" sounding a lot better than if they had put "Sewerage and Water Board" on the bottle. Friday night on the Tweeters I inadvertently typed "Sewage and waterboard" which I think may actually violate the Geneva Convention.

Despite the warnings, I'm gonna go ahead and shower before going down to the Dome today. I was tempted to stay good and ripe for my Superdome security pat-down but it's not exactly a TSA style operation over there. At the Dome you can get your flask full of rum by the welcome huggers roughly 10 out of every 10 attempts. At the airport, they have no compunction whatsoever about squeezing your urine. Anyway I'm gonna try and go early. I hear the first 10,000 fans receive a complimentary copy of Jeremey Shockey's new book, Cooking With Four Loko just in case we still don't have water by Thanksgiving.

After the game, do stop by John Paul's (940 Elysian Fields Ave.) for the final performance of To Moscow, You Betcha (see Kevin Allman's review at the Gambit blog) which begins at 7.