Thursday, July 10, 2014

You Can Scratch "Drinking The Crazy Water" As A Figure Of Speech--

     Because it's a very real thing.  And they have T-shirts!

     But here's the crux of the matter: I have been all over that website and nowhere on it -- nowhere! --  does it say, "Exclusive water supplier to the national conventions of all major political parties."  Why do you suppose they'd want to hide an important distinction like that?

     (And yes, that paragraph's satire.  Crazy Water most certainly is not, having been a fine product out of Mineral Wells, Texas since the Nineteenth Century.  As you might except, that's where the name of the town comes from, and I am assured by those who can obtain it that it's very fine mineral water indeed.)

10 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I'm thinking it is something in the water at those events. The gin, the vermouth, the whisky/whiskey...

OldTexan said...

That explains a whole lot. I spent my first six months in 1945 living in MIneral Wells, Texas where my dad was an Army Officer stationed at Fort Wolter's. Crazy Water is the excuse I am using from now on.

Your site is alway informative and helpful.

fillyjonk said...

I live not TOO terribly far from there. My understanding is that it's actually ANTI-crazy water, because of the alleged small lithium content in it.

So maybe we DO need to supply it, generously, to both political parties.

They also sold what were called "crazy crystals," which were apparently what was left when you evaporated a bunch of crazy water.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Doesn't matter. Since the RNC picked Cleveland for their Circus in 2016, they'll be drinking "Fire Water" from the Cuyahoga River.

Dave In Indiana said...

Prior to the Chappaquiddick incident I think they were famous for supplying Ted Kennedy with his drivin' whiskey.

Old NFO said...

Water??? I didn't think they drank anything but booze!

Greg Tag said...

The only problem with Crazy Water is the way it tastes, which is absolutely awful. It tastes so bad, you know it has to be good for you.

Mineral Wells has a skyscraper of some 20 stories, built as an elegant hotel which rivalled the Waldorf or anything then current in NYC. Marble and gilt and art deco, the hotel sits over ( at least one of) a Crazy Water spring. The beautiful people of the 30's, including political figures, rich playboys and Hollywood names, came there to relax, do the spa thing and take mud baths in mineral mud, as well as drink Crazy Water.

The hotel has been abandoned since the 60's - it cannot even be demolished economically. When arriving from Ft Worth you see it towering over the prairie miles before you reach Mineral Wells. The glass is gone from most windows and pigeons roost in it.

Shattered remnant of a bygone age.

Roberta X said...

Greg: to Hoosier ears, it sounds remarkably familiar! :) The vast dome of the West Baden Springs Hotel (not quite large enough to play baseball in, but only just) sat empty for a lifetime, following a slow decline starting with the Depression. French Lick Resort (named after the mineral-spring-fed salt lick known to the West since French trappers and traders found it in the 18th Century) managed to survive, but barely. West Baden relaunched as a casing and it doing well, last I heard. I saw the place when it was a ruin undergoing restoration.

Windy Wilson said...

Greg Tag, I remember back in the late 70's when Perrier first became chi-chi there was a move to regulate the minimum minerals that could be present in the water to call it mineral water. People complained that the proposed levels were so high the water would taste terrible. I guess we know who conspired with the nanny-staters to propose THAT law.

Windy Wilson said...

So there's no "Crazy Water No. 1?"