George,

About the water shortage. It has reminded me one of my pet peeves: having to get a clean plate every time you go back to a buffet. It not only waste energy and drives up the price of your meal but it is a senseless, wasteful use of water.

Places like China Wall have no choice: its the law. Having come of age in the 60's & 70's I still have a bit of the rebel in me and defiantly take my dirty plate back for seconds and thirds. Whoa.

However the pricy places like C&O and Metropolitan have no excuses. They use a lot of unnecessary dishes just for show like a plate under your soup bowel. I think the water crisis will probably make us think about a lot of dumb stuff we do.

Downing Smith (electronic mail, September 26, 2002)