    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [February 19, 1998]
    [Page 246]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters in Baltimore, Maryland
    February 19, 1998

    Living Classrooms Water Quality Experiment

        Q. Tell us, what does it mean?
        The President. Well, this water is from here. So they wanted to test
    the water to see if it could accommodate life. And you had to put this
    free agent in the water, and then you shake it up, and then you match it
    up with these colors here, to see which one it's like. So we put it in
    here, and the color is most like this one--7.5 to 9, and then here's the
    chart. It's around neutral; this way it will accommodate life. If it's
    too acidic, obviously it won't. But if it gets way out here, it's too
    basic, it won't. So anywhere in this range, right, 7 to 10 is okay. And
    you see the color here is like in between these two.
        I learned all that from Brandon here, my
    science instructor--[laughter]--my marine biology instructor here. You
    did a great job.
        Brandon Hunter. Any time.
        The President. And so did you, Aaron.
        The Vice President. Aaron did a great
    job, too.
        Brandon. This was fun.
        The President. Was it fun for you?
        Brandon. Yep.
        The President. It was fun for us, too. Thanks.

    Vice President's Travel

        Q. Mr. President, if you're grounding the Vice President, will you
    be skipping some of your trips over the next couple of weeks, too?
        The Vice President. We're going to go
    do this event now, and then we'll----
        The President. I didn't ground him.
    Don't get too carried away with the school metaphors here. I just asked
    him to stay around.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:55 a.m. at the Living Classrooms
    Foundation. In his remarks, he referred to Brandon Hunter and Aaron
    Hunt, Middlesex Elementary School students who participated in a water
    quality experiment. A tape was not available for verification of the
    content of this exchange.