Beating up on us again

Last week the glass industry via a piece in a Toronto newspaper took on more heat. Once again the construction of condominiums with a ton of glass were the focus of a very rough and pretty much one-sided piece.  For me as a glass guy, it was a tough one to take.  While the article probably was geared to get on the developers and designers and their choices of materials, when I read it I just saw a very broad-brush wiping of an entire glass industry with an extremely negative stroke.  I don’t know what materials are used in these condos and I am sure there are some brutally weak ones, but the way the article was written made it sound like there are no glass materials that could EVER be good enough.  Meanwhile for as mad as I got reading the piece, I mentioned to a good pal of mine from Toronto and he was not fazed at all.  Evidently the bashing like this has been going on for a while.  Still it is a shame that we as an industry are being pretty unfairly portrayed yet again.

Elsewhere…

--  Viracon premiered a new logo and website this past week and I must say I was impressed.  First off, making a change to a look and logo for a company as iconic as Viracon is not easy.  Also re-building a website (something I do a lot) is very difficult.  Viracon aced them both.  The new logo is sharp and clean.  The new site I will admit I struggled with in finding a few things but its also new and I am an impatient person.  The new tagline elicits memories for me of Herb Brooks in Miracle.  Incredible cool that a classic Minnesota based company has a tag line that makes me think of one of the greatest people the state of Minnesota has ever given us.  Anyway, major kudos to all that worked on this effort!  Job well done.

--  Quick wrap of BEC.  This was the last conference led by Henry Taylor of Kawneer as Chair.  Henry was my choice to replace me in that position five years ago and he did a tremendous job despite some really rocky roads.  Henry’s a good man that I am sure will continue to give back to the industry.  In his place I am thrilled that Jon Kimberlain of Dow Corning is stepping in.  Jon is a true blue talent in our world and he’ll be amazing in that spot.  Plus I love how active Dow Corning is getting in our industry, very good to have their support!

--  Unfortunately have a sad note to report in the passing of Mike McAskin of Great Lakes Glass in Michigan.  Mike was an industry vet and had just a few years bought Great Lakes and was building them into a very strong player in the region.  He was a good, fair, class man, who always took time for people to come pitch him ideas, products, and services.  A tough loss for all of us.  Thoughts and prayers to his family and staff at Great Lakes.

-- The Final Four is set.  I am happy for my Michigan friends who make it to the biggest stage after being bounced by Ohio U last year and thrilled for Tony Kamber, the biggest Louisville fan in the industry.  Should be a fun run to the title.

--  Last this week; the ABI did once again go up.  We’re now on a roll here and the improvements in new projects inquiry, best in 6 years is very exciting.  But as always I do worry again about the reliability of this report as we should be busier right now (based on old reports) than we seemingly actually are. 

LINKS of the WEEK

--  Amazing weight loss story- couple loses 500 pounds… very cool.

--  New technology enters the prom-asking arena… NOT looking forward to my daughter hitting that age.

--  Long piece on a guy “selling himself” which is pretty wild.

VIDEO of the WEEK

This week my brother makes an appearance again with a Video of the Week submission… this one is pretty comical, though possibly staged.