I'm surprised by how excited I am that the bottled water counter movement is building such momentum. Two Fridays ago I met (for the first time) with Cello Vergara, principal of Propaganda 3. At the start of our meeting, Cello offered refreshments: soda, bottled water? Of course I told him about the group I started and why. Later I discovered that by Tuesday of the following week, Cello had cancelled a standing order of bottled water for the office. And he had bought each of his employees a glass for tap water.

I love this. It's a reminder that "selling" -- whether an idea, a product, anything really in our noisy world -- comes down to connecting with those whom have a shared interest. A natural event -- being offered a drink -- prompted a simple story about a relatively small thing I'm feeling rather strongly about right now. No preaching. No convincing needed.  If whatever you're selling is really, truly a good thing, you can get the right kind of attention.  And the beat goes on...

My guess is the organizers of World Water Week in Stockholm all this week is to credit with the spate of attention of what the Associated Press is calling Public Enemy #1. 

Such an impact is being made among the press and grassroots.

Following New York's lead, last month London's Green Party launched a campaign to urge Londoners -- alleged drinkers of bottled water equivalent to just over one Olympic-sized swimming pool per week (25% of which is imported) -- to stop drinking bottled water, and instead demand tap water at restaurants.

If Londoners' public opinion is any indication, this discussion thread suggests that consumers are ready to go back to the tap. UK's Ruscombe Green blog makes a great point: that bottled water should just be part of "a complete overhaul of how we view and manage our water supplies."

Even a Chicago alderman this week proposed a $.10 to $.25 tax on bottle water ranging from $1.30 to $1.50.

Please share your thoughts.

Of course we all already know buying bottled water is not a good thing on so many levels. Yet, I myself am guilty of occasionally giving in to convenience and making a "healthier choice" of water over soft drinks when I'm out and about (instead of stashing a Nalgene everywhere. NO MORE.

This Fast Company magazine article iced it for me. I will no longer buy bottled water. I've got a commitment from my four stepkids and husband to do the same.

I've also started this group on Facebook to help enlist support and spread the word.

Will you please join me and stop buying bottled water -- and encourage those around you to do the same?

A few startling data points from the article:

• Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on iPods or movie tickets: $15 billion
• The industry transports around 1 billion bottles of water a week, also bad for the environment.
• Meantime, 1 out of 6 people in the world has no dependable drinking water.

I gotta believe there are millions of other people like me who are OK with trading off the convenience of bottled water to be part of a bigger solution.

Are you?

I'm struck by the relationship paradox between the breakneck pace of Western media culture and creativity. "Creativity is a gift," John Lennon once said, "it doesn't come through if the air is cluttered."

And in closing what was a terrific weekend writing conference for poets, fiction, non-fiction, stage and screen writers presented by New Letters, a point was borrowed from author Milan Kundera about "the secret bond between slowness and memory, and between speed and forgetting."

By contrast, I witness how producing original or mash-up digital shorts is as effortless to what's provocatively and arguably called (by Bolt CEO Andrew Cohen) today's" most creative generation since the Renaissance," as crayonizing my Nancy and Sluggo coloring book was to my generation.

A recent chat I had with a veteran TV producer confirmed that most kids -- including all three of my teenage stepkids -- with even a hint of self-expression, access to a mobile phone or digital camera and the Internet have basic competence in filmmaking by the time they are 10 or 12.

Contemporary life is fast and cluttered for most of us. Yet for most anyone 16 and under, there is no other reality. I'm curious to see how art continues to evolve and morph among millenials. And if a longing for slowness will eventually catch up.

Why a mojito recipe on this blog?

Because I had to slog through a bunch of single-serve recipes before I hit on a volume batch for my refreshingly favorite summertime cocktail.

Iim partial to this one from Bon Appetit, January 2001, makes six. NOTE: Give yourself plenty of time to conjure this labor-intensive creation.

3 cups fresh mint leaves
9 T sugar
1 1/2 cups light rum
1/2 cup fresh lime juice

6 cups crushed ice
6 lime wedges
3 to 6 cups club soda...TASTE first at the 3 cup mark before you add more...I find 6 cups dilutes it too much.

Reserve 6 mint leaves for garnish. Place remaining mint leaves in medium bowl. Add sugar. Mash with wooden spoon until mint is aromatic and oils are released.

Add rum and lime juice and stir until sugar dissolves. Strain mixture into pitcher. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead; refrigerate).

Add club soda to pitcher; gently stir. Fill each of 6 tall glasses with 1 cup crushed ice. Pour mojito over and garnish each glass with 1 mint leaf and 1 lime wedge.

Serves 6

Do Americans want more face-to-face interaction, and not even realize it? Two pieces caught my eye today that suggest we do.

In its April issue, Bon Appetit reports on underground supper clubs that, for a small sum, bring together disparate groups of people to literally and figuratively break bread in living rooms, backyards and vacant work spaces. Inspired by the paladeres (in-home dining experiences of Cuba) and the dissident underground dining scene in Berlin, these culinary speakeasies are "taking the formality out of restaurant dining and creating a communal and populist alternative." San Francisco's The Ghetto Gourmet mixes art and performance into the dining experience.

And at zillowblog, an Empty-Nester couple who swapped a sprawling suburban home in Texas for downtown Seattle condo, confesses to how their everyday lives and interactions with others have changed in every way imaginable -- for the better:

• "Now, we stand face-to-face with people in our building’s elevators, at our corner hangouts, and on the sidewalks. We chitchat and pet our neighbors’ dogs. We exchange “good mornings” with the people we pass everyday on our way to work. "

• "Our local video store proprietor has very decided ideas about what we should and shouldn’t rent -– he’ll actually pull DVD’s from under the counter and say, “Here -– I was saving these for you.” Instead of feeling anonymous in the big city, we’ve grown to feel welcomed and wanted, and we’ve become friendlier, too. "

• "Spontaneity has become a big part of our lives. We see movies, baseball games, and go to the theatre, concerts and museums without planning ahead since they are all within easy reach. We often stroll to our local park, where there’s almost always some sort of event or concert going on. An added bonus to all of this activity is that we are healthier and stronger than we’ve been in years."

Read the sweet, full account, here.