Neulich ist die Plastikflasche in den Medien thematisiert worden, als der Republikaner Marco Rubio während seiner Gegenrede zu Präsident Obamas Lage-der-Nation-Rede bedürftig nach einer solchen griff. Hier ist dazu eine Beschreibung und feuilletonistische Deutung zu lesen, die mich stark an Rainald Goetz' Resignation im Feld des politischen Journalismus erinnert: der Romanautor kann es nicht besser machen als die Wirklichkeit, erzeugt durch Politiker und Journalist:
The dry mouth persisted, and, at times, his eyes flashed with a kind of pleading and mounting desperation: the speech was less than halfway over, with words and words to go. His hands, already large in the frame when he kept them low in front of him, flashed a few times to his lips. And then back to his temple.
By the eighth minute, he seemed to have adjusted, and it looked as if he might push through to the end. But then, three minutes later, he made a gamble and reached for a water bottle offscreen: he lurched down to his left and fumbled a bit, making a terrifyingly intimate moment of eye contact with the audience before taking a quick sip from an unfortunately tiny bottle and then ducking to put it back.