Inqlings: White Dog banning the bottle

Restaurateur Judy Wicks buys local produce and meats. "Why not water?" asks Wicks, owner of University City's White Dog Cafe. At an 11 a.m. news conference today, Wicks is set to announce that the White Dog no longer will sell bottled water, delighting environmental activists. That may be one restaurant. If plans hold, the City of Philadelphia will stop buying bottled water, too. Wicks explains that the quality of filtered municipal water (e.g., Schuylkill Punch) is no different from, say, Dasani. Also, she says, "it doesn't make sense to ship bottled water, to burn up all those carbons, and possibly take water from aquifers whose communities can't afford it." Wicks yesterday did not know off the top of her head how much bottled water she has sold - meaning she's also not sure how much the boycott will cost her. (Bottled water, remember, is a high mark-up item.) The announcement's timing coincides with tomorrow's Philly release of the documentary Flow: For Love of Water and the recent book Water Consciousness.

City officials and reps of the group Corporate Accountability International will be there. At the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June, Mayor Nutter cosponsored a resolution urging that municipal governments phase out bottled water in city buildings. The city, weighing such a ban, has put Mark Alan Hughes, the director of sustainability, on the case. Hughes said that while the Philadelphia Water Department is looking into quality and other issues, the movement has taken root. At some city meetings now, pitchers of tap water and recyclable cups are put out.

"A year or two ago, we'd have a table full of bottled water," Hughes says. Today's news conference will be capped by a water taste test. Unmasked This year's Borrowers Ball will be the place to be seen but not recognized. Since the Free Library of Philadelphia's annual fund-raising event falls on Nov. 1, organizers have themed it a masquerade ball. Those who show up at the library without masks will not be out of luck. Face-painters have been hired. Briefly noted Reading Terminal Market and the Food Trust will donate all donations from Philbert the Pig, the bronze "piggy bank" in the market's Center Court seating area, to Philabundance in support of its milk-donation program. Pipes of Peace, the documentary about jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley by Philly's George Manney and Su Teears, will be screened Saturday at the Charlotte (N.C.) Film Festival.

 Neat mash-up: the old-fashioned dance hop, streamed live on the Internet. Sam Lit, son of late radio legend Hy Lit, will put tomorrow's oldies dance party from the Dolce Valley Forge Hotel in King of Prussia (starting 5 p.m.) on his Webcast at HyLitRadio.com. Be on the lookout for. . . Singer/Barack Obama supporter Carole King is due to visit Reading Terminal Market tomorrow afternoon to chat up undecided voters. (Presumably, it's not too late, baby.) . . . Cookbook author/TV host Giada de Laurentiis, from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday at Williams-Sonoma in King of Prussia. . . . TV chef Marcella Hazan, at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Free Library's Central Library . . . Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten, from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 at Williams-Sonoma in King of Prussia. . . . GiGi, the restaurant-lounge at 319 Market St. in Old City, has been a hot spot, particularly now that the Phillies and Eagles are in season. Co-owner Stephenie LaGrossa has an on-again, off-again thing with Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick, who has an on-again, off-again thing with his slider. Wednesday night, Eagles wideout DeSean Jackson stopped in for a nip after picking up his cousin at the airport. I hear that Jackson did not put down his drink before he finished it.