1/2/2014 10:24:00 PM
HEADLINES
PERSPECTIVE: 2013 Quips of the Year

Hayes Bolt & Supply of San Diego is known for its disaster planning.  Among its strategies is a generator which can use gasoline from automobiles … a good idea until one employee mentioned that vehicles now have anti-siphon valves.

The initially-stumped disaster strategist trying to devise an alternative fuel source thought of a question for Hayes employees which answered the problem: How many of you can bypass anti-siphon devices?  A majority raised their hands.

In inducting Barry Carpe of All-Tech Fasteners into the New England Fastener Distributors Association how does Rick Ferenchick describe him?

Honoree Carpe has been chair, president and vice president, plus he chaired numerous committees. Ferenchick’s nine-word summary of Carpe’s contribution to the NEFDA:  “Barry is the Swiss Army knife of the NEFDA.”

Geoff Smart – speaking on “The A Method for Hiring” at the National Fastener Distributors Association – told how one executive explained to an employee why he was being fired: “I hired your resume, but what I got was you.”

“Trying to be everything is like trying to be nothing,” consultant Vicki Merrill told the Pacific-West Fastener Association.

Commenting on the high prices for wine at a Las Vegas restaurant, Barry Porteous lamented: “If only we could get that margin for half inch nuts.”

With the Brighton-Best acquisition of Porteous Fastener Company, CEO Barry Porteous and COO Bob Porteous became employees of Robert Sheih, leading one industry observer to quip: “I’d like to be fly on the wall of the board meeting with Robert + Barry + Bob.”

AFJ publisher Mike McGuire was a teenager when Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 was published in 1961.  McGuire must of liked the book because he created some Catch 22s for himself during 2013.

McGuire started out the year as usual posting articles word-for-word from other publications without crediting the original writers or indicating permission to use their work. His early 2013 victims ranged from Bloomberg to The Malaysian Reserve and Crain’s Cleveland Business. 

This year, he created his own Catch 22 with another theft: In the spring of 2013, McGuire posted an autumn 2012 article from GlobalFastenerNews.com.  Beyond getting caught participating in the theft, it makes it difficult for McGuire to claim he posts fresh news.

He added yet another Catch 22 by stealing the GlobalFastenerNews.com article because McGuire made it difficult to criticize FIN’s reporting or writing since he copied it word for word.  

McGuire must also have liked the title to 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s autobiography, With No Apologies, as McGuire’s emails to his victim featured expletives rather than “I’m sorry.” ©2013 GlobalFastenerNews.com