Category: Notes From A Busy Editor

Notes From A Busy Editor

You Got That WHERE?

Consider the origins of stone-care products at your local industry supplier – or the nearest Big Box home-furnishing stone – and you’ll get a quick tour of the worldwide stone industry. Mixed in with U.S. manufacturers are destinations as close as Canada and Mexico to more-exotic locations such as Turkey and China.

And, if there’s an incredibly enterprising importer out there, you can add one more country to the list: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) … or, as you’re going to likely know it, North Korea.

Notes From A Busy Editor

A Good Man to Know

Early in Citzen Kane, Wall Street baron Walter Thatcher rolls his eyes when his financial ward, Charles Foster Kane, instructs him not to sell the New York Examiner, a struggling back-marker of a daily – because, in Kane’s work, “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.”

Mr. Kane, meet the world of 2009. It ain’t fun anymore.

Notes From A Busy Editor

There’s a Story in Here Somewhere (updated Sept. 4)

Editor’s note: A Sept. 1 update to this blog includes new links to various reports, and a Aug. 4 response to CRCPD members by Dave Bernhardt.

One of the banes of the news business is coming across a bogey, where you turn over a bunch of stones … and end up with a bunch of upside-down rocks. Or – even worse – you end up with plenty of facts and documents, but nothing fits into a straight, cohesive article.

Notes From A Busy Editor

Orphans of the Stone

Think there’s anything worse than having a car without a company, such as a Pontiac or Plymouth, in your garage? Try dealing with a bridge saw or CNC or any other machine for fabricating stone when the manufacturer disappears.

Notes From A Busy Editor

Transparent Sustainability

When it comes to the green market, stone often gets to take the hard route to a project, either in trying to meet arbitrary material specs or competing with products bearing some kind of Sustainability Seal of Approval. The obstacles are often well-meaning in nature, although it’s also reminiscent of road paved with good intentions and its ultimate destination.

The toughest one, though, may be competing with a product that doesn’t exist, and may never see the side of a building anywhere in the world. It sounds absurd, but it’s true.

Notes From A Busy Editor

Bang-up Time

If there’s anything that embodies the United States, it’s today. The problem is that many people seem to be celebrating the wrong holiday.

Since this is a day when everyone’s supposed to be doing something else than work, I’ll keep this short. My beef is that, with all the barbecues, parades, rodeos, baseball games and fireworks displays, people are going out and having a good time on the Fourth of July … and that’s not the holiday.

Notes From A Busy Editor

Stone+tec/Notes from Nuremberg

Random observations from Germany and its big stone show last month:
• It’s way too easy to say that a show’s gone to the dogs, but Stone+tec allows the four-legged friends of fabricators to attend the show. And we’re not talking service dogs, either – just plain ol’ dogs on leashes.

Notes From A Busy Editor

Stop Sliding?

Anyone checking the Latest News section of Stone Business Online last week came across something that’s definitely not about stone … but the subject might tell us a lot about the rest of 2009.