Warren: Well, of course, dearie, it’s onlygood manners to be ashamed of it: it’s expectedfrom a woman. Women have to pretend tofeel a great deal that they don’t feel. —Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s ProfessionWEDNESDAY MORNING I phone Gina Lucchese at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Gina is one of the three Feds in the world you can trust. (Or is it four? I keep forgetting.) Because she could be making a ton of money doing the same work for the other side. Turns out she’s in Puerto Rico for the week busting heads over some toxic leachate in the water supply. They had to throw in Puerto Rico because she got stuck with cleaning up all the toxic waste in New York and New Jersey, which is a bit like having to clean up the tiger cages at the Bronx Zoo—with the tigers still in them.They think I’m just another hysterical mother whose drinking water tastes like brake fluid but they promise to put me on “the list.” I ask to speak with the supervisor, who listens patiently for details, then announces, “Drinking water is local jurisdiction, call your County Board of Health.”Okay, so I call up the County Board of Health.
