Fizz April 8, 2013 ANN Now extended through September 1 . . . and I’ll tell you why: it’s wonderful! A one-woman show that feels like a full cast — her entire family is there, her secretary, her speechwriter, the lawyer advising her on a death-penalty stay, Bill Clinton — Ann is Ann Richards, the larger-than-life former governor of Texas, who died in 2006 but is brought back to life — magnificently — by Holland Taylor at the Vivian Beaumont theater at Lincoln Center. Funny, brilliant, and even a little inspirational. SODASTREAM Pamela forwards this 45-second Superbowl ad CBS refused to air. Fun. I’ve decided that SodaStream is the near exact opposite of Nespresso. Nespresso machines are expensive and add significantly to your cost of caffeine (50 cents a shot versus 50 cents a pot) and — perhaps less significantly, but still — to the strain you place on the environment (all those little cartridges to be disposed of). SodaStream machines are cheap and save significantly on both your cost of carbonation (about a third the price of a 50-cent aluminum can of soda or half the price of a $1.89 2-liter plastic bottle . . . and 100% saving on the soda in your Scotch and soda or the fizzy water in your “Perrier”) and on the cost to the environment (all that aluminum and plastic to make, transport, and dispose of). Plus, Nespresso is, well, snooty. Where SodaStream is, well, fun. (Watch the ad again or visit their website.) And while it’s no big deal to carry Nespresso cartridges home or have them mailed to you — they’re light — do you know how much strain you’re putting on your back when you lug around a couple of cases of Dr. Pepper? The truth is I’m not much on fizzy drinks when I’m home anyway — I’m more of a carrot juice or iced tea kind of guy. (Read: communist.) And when guests ask for a Diet Coke, I’m not sure I can get away with pouring it for them from a SodaStream bottle. (Pouring Glenlivet from a Johnny Walker Blue bottle saves $150 a bottle: the perfect crime .) But somebody is drinking tens of billions of cans of soda each year, and SodaStream is a good way for them to drink that soda from the tap, essentially, instead. I have bought a few January 2015 SODA 42.5 LEAPS.* You never know. *With money I can truly afford to lose, because they will expire worthless in less than two years should we get a dip in the price of the stock. QUIT SMOKING Mark: “Some of the smoking statistics here are very interesting. I know your history trying to get Russians to stop. Maybe a little reminder to the rest of the world is in order. And think of the money smokers could save.”