Could this be an Oscar worthy film?

The on-going saga of the Republic/Echo Windows adventure continued this week when it was announced that Echo was closing down. The news came as a major shock since it’s pretty rare for a business to be bought and closed so quickly. Echo came about just a few months ago and supposedly had some work in house. So who knows what went down… The bottom line is that this story… from the plant takeover and all of the other fixings was pretty interesting and probably not even close to being told in its entirety. I guess we’ll have to wait for the movie of the week for that one…

Elsewhere…

-- Next week the NFRC meetings… yee ha. I guess we’ll see if any company is "special" enough to sponsor that event. And speaking of NFRC they sent out the propaganda newsletter recently and it had once again classic unintentional comedy throughout. But the unfunny and galling item was the fact that NFRC is looking for a firm to “promote participation in the CMA program”…. Unreal. So let’s see… let’s bring upon the public a wasteful and unasked for (and un-needed) program and then let’s then hire someone to promote it because quite frankly no one wants it in the first place. BRILLIANT! So yes more money will be spent to promote the Titanic and that means more costs to the people who will be forced to use this program. I still think the Titanic will sink, if only because bad logic and planning just can’t survive no matter how many clueless people from DOE support it.

-- Saw the blurb on Sage getting a 20 million dollar investment via USGNN. Congrats to them… a great company with a great product- those investors made the right call that is for sure.

-- After my Glassweek columns I was sent an e mail asking why I did not mention Arch or any Arch people. (and no it was not sent by an Arch person!). Well as I replied to the person I write this piece as a independent guy- not an Arch guy. The reply back was telling “then that’s all the more reason you SHOULD mention Arch people etc…” And with that I was speechless. I guess it’s because the people I work with know how much I respect them and appreciate them- because I tell that to their face. They get to suffer with me daily while the rest of you just suffer once a week! Anyway I am proud and honored to work along side some of the best people in our industry and my not mentioning of them should not be taken as lack of appreciation.

-- If you are not watching the videos and newscasts from USGNN you really are missing out. Megan Headley and Drew Vass are doing some real tremendous work. As a former producer, I am jealous of all of the bells and whistles Drew has at his fingertips. Good stuff and worth your time.

-- Now that Glassweek is over the next big events are the Glass Fab and Educational conference in Cincy in April, then AIA in San Fran. Along the way there’s also a BIPV conference in San Diego too. Outside of that though it looks to be pretty quiet nationally… and this is fine by me. I think time being spent focusing on our cores is the only play right now.

-- Guilty Pleasure alert- If you have Sirius XM radio… on Sunday’s on channel 8.. they play old America’s Top 40’s with Casey Kasem… and it’s the exact show from some random weekend in the 80’s. This past Sunday I heard a show from 1980 and it was awesome.. the long distance dedication and the wild mix of music… (#18 was Pink Floyd… #17 was the Spinners….) Driving around and running errands made so much more enjoyable. Dang just writing that paragraph made me feel old.

Off the the LINKS!

-- The Link Chick had the week off last week thanks to BEC but now she is back to normal. Plus amazingly I even found a few links too… so here is a great potpourri of links sponsored by …… whomever sponsors the NFRC meeting because they have money to burn…

-- A blog post on the world’s “dumbest” LEED buildings. Some of these are legit- others not so much.

-- Speaking of Green… the Wall Street Journal had a great piece on the fact that Green jobs may not be the be-all, end-all that so many people think they will be. Great read here.

-- I don’t know if this is true or not but “Solar Powered” batteries? Like the ones you put in your remote? If this is true…. Wow…

-- Awesome story on sportsmanship…. Especially in light of the 100-0 diasater- this was cool

Was the coverage of the stimulus done correctly? Interesting piece breaking down the TV coverage!

Funny Joke/Story of the week:
From Stu (Thanks!!)

Having already downed a few power drinks, she turned around, faced him, looked him straight in the eye and said, 'Listen here good looking, I screw anybody, any time, anywhere, your place, my place, in the car, front door, back door, on the ground, standing up, sitting down, naked or with clothes on, dirty, clean . . . it doesn't matter to me. I've been doing it ever since I got out of college and I just love it.' Eyes now wide with interest, he responded,'No kidding. I'm a lawyer too. What firm are you with?

And most of you know my feelings on lawyers… I love this story!

Video of the week:

Thanks to Zone for this one… those Baby E Trade commercials have been popular- now check out the outtakes. Great stuff especially on the economy.