"Our Water Kicks Your Water's Ass"

Gone are the day's when a state fair was only about choosing the biggest watermelon or the best-looking pig (a la "Zuckerman's famous pig"). Nope, times have truly changed. As the N.Y. Times reports with a tone of deep-seated pride:

Beating more than 150 other municipal water systems, New York City came in first — for the first time — in the New York State Water Taste Test at the State Fair in Syracuse this week.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wasted no time issuing a statement on Wednesday bragging about the distinction and calling the tap-water system “the lifeblood of our city.” But who came in second?

The second-place winner, announced on Tuesday, was the village of Pulaski, population 2,398, in Oswego County, near the eastern edge of Lake Ontario. By car, the upstate village (locals pronounce it pull-ask-EYE) is nearly five hours from New York City.

So far, Pulaski is taking the news well. “We were very proud to have come in second place,” Gary M. Stevens, superintendent of public works for the village since 1992, said in a phone interview. “First place would have been better, but things happen.”

. . . The annual water taste test — this was its 22nd year — is a “nonscientific competition” sponsored by the State Department of Health and the New York section of the American Water Works Association. About 250 people attending the fair judged the blind taste test.

Mr. Stevens, of Pulaski, has never been to New York City. Mr. Wheeler, who has been the mayor for two years, said he last visited three years ago. He did not remember the city’s water too well. “It tasted O.K., but ours is better,” he said. “Whatever.”