Early last year in California, one community's city councilors scheduled a vote to band foam cups from civic events because the cups were manufactured with dihydrogen monoxide, a sinister compound that a web site had warned was associated with drowning deaths and acid rain. The earnest officials apparently failed to recognize the web site as satiric: dihydrogen monoxide is of course chemical nomenclature for ordinary water. Pity the community that makes the mistake of banning that.