Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Battling the Blahs

Is it too early to have the summer doldrums? Well when it comes to the weekly adventure of this blog I do. Usually news is flowing like crazy and there’s always stuff to comment on, but lately that really has not been the case. Basically it’s the same issues coming up again and again with no new good scuttlebutt to work off of. Thanks to the economy the fun of spoiling a sale or acquisition is gone too since it seems like no one is doing any of that right now. So that said, if you have an issue or insight that you think I should be aware of, please drop me a note. Otherwise we’ll keep doing the best we can to keep the industry up to speed on all of the goings on out there… even if they are few and far between right now.

Elsewhere…

-- Color me stunned that my Pittsburgh Penguins are in a game 7 vs the might Red Wings… Friday night will surely be ulcer inducing.

-- Greg Carney update… heard today that Greg may be released from the hospital and heading home. Again that is great news. He is still far from being active and at it, but every day it seemingly gets better. No doubt as he recovers I can guarantee you he will be blown away and thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers sent his way!

-- Old story new twist… I have been convinced for years that Marc LaFrance of the DOE does not ever think for himself. And this week I had another example when LaFrance came out in a speech promoting the use of Triple Pane glazing. (Which is a story I'll save for next week) He also had this comment:

“…for the layman, Congress, etc., they understand an R-value better.”

Hmmm.. I wonder who he is been talking to… maybe the guys from Serious Materials… since that’s a big piece of their promotion and this quote was recently published:

“U-value is confusing to the consumer,” he contends. “All of them are close to zero. The insulation industry talks R-value because R-20 is different than R-1, and consumers get that. The world talks R-values.”- Kevin Surace- Serious Materials

Yep all of a sudden “R Value” is everywhere… sorry it’s not a coincidence that LaFrance and Surace are speaking the same language…. and more proof that the DOE has people that are so clueless it hurts. Especially when they have money to spend and rules to make… Very sad… and I wonder how long before LaFrance starts pushing hard for heat mirror…

-- And while I am at it on the whole window thing… when the goofy 30/30 came out, the folks from Weathershield Window actually sent a letter to President Obama praising its greatness… and then soon after they closed on of their plants… wow must not have been that great eh? Note I am never one to wallow in something like that, but the letter to the President was so arrogant that it amazes me to this day they sent it. (and then promoted it). And even more so since the stimulus was propped today for saving and creating jobs yet it seems like daily (Philips, Silverline, Jeld Wen and so on) you have plants closing…

-- By the way how do you qualify a "saved" job? Would love know how that's figured.

-- Last week the prediction for this year’s hurricane season came out and it’s expected to be light… these guys have been wrong before so we will shall see… but one interesting note is that if anyone is at a higher risk for hurricanes it’s the east coast from the Carolinas and north. Hurricane codes up in that region are nowhere near as stringent as in the south, so this could be a lesson learning time for those folks if Mother Nature takes action.

-- I wonder what’s new on the bogus lawsuits that were filed in the states after the European price fixing debacles came up. I ask because once again someone thought I was involved in it because a company that jumped on shares the same last name(dishonorably, in my opinion). No way would I ever put my name on something so seedy.

-- I hate plane travel and this update on new seats and lack of leg room is pretty depressing… details here.

Off to the LINKS!

-- Funny one off the top… a Holiday Inn gets a crank call that says to hit the fire alarms, make the sprinkler system work and break some windows… and amazingly the front desk person does it… 50k later, you have a mess… the sordid and sad yet comical details HERE.

The “Link Chick” was back with a serious vengeance this week… in fact over the weekend she sent me like 60 stories… it helped me on Sunday forget about the terrible hockey game played the night before. Anyway here’s some of the best of the lot…

-- Don’t you usually consider a vending machine something for candy or pop? Well not here… check out the 10 most bizarre vending machines…. Wild.

-- I just celebrated 15 years of marriage last week… but I have nothing on this couple that has been married 80 years… 80… That is incredible…

-- Answering the age old question… is it OK to steal hotel amenities? By the way I admit I took everything from the Palm this year at BEC.. that was good stuff… but my normal haunts of the Drury Inn just don’t cut it…

Video of the week:

You may have heard about Bret Michaels of Poison getting beheaded by the curtain at last week’s Tony Awards… if you did not see, here it is… not a great close up, but you’ll get the jist…

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