The previous issue of TIRE BUSINESS featured several interesting photos shot in Vietnam by Mike Wurdeman, owner of Formula Tire Inc. in Marysville, Wash. The dealer, who spent a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in 'Nam in 1968-69, returned there last March to visit old battlefields-and tire dealerships. He found ancient tire shops with nary an impact wrench in sight.
Nothing goes to waste, he discovered. This includes old tires that in the U.S. would be trashed. In Vietnam-where many of the tires still in use are military types leftover from the war-junk casings often are bolted together and used on farm wagons.
Now there's an ad for rolling resistance.
Is it any wonder?
Notions of life in ``paradise'' to the contrary. . . in the past we've reported that, like anywhere on the mainland, doing business in Hawaii is tough, and a number of independent tire dealerships have folded there in recent years.
Any correlation between that and the fact Hawaii leads the nation in consumption of Spam, the ``mystery'' meat?
Pull up a chair
Catching speeders is a tricky business in Ft. Collins, Colo., where the friendly police department has undertaken a new tack, according to National Public Radio. Plain clothes cops positioned at various locations sit in lawn chairs, radar guns in hand, clocking unaware motorists.
In a three-week period they nabbed a hefty increase in fines, thanks to 60 speeders (who probably were wondering what the guy with the box of doughnuts was doing sitting there on the treelawn.)
'Rubber City' Exposure
The scene: the third-to-last episode of the CBS TV series Northern Exposure.
The players: Maurice Minnifield, ex-astronaut and town benefactor, and Ruthanne, operator of the town general store, sit tete-a-tete in ``The Brick'' saloon.
The subplot: Maurice testily questions why Ruthanne pulled a public relations blunder and hurt the town's chances for future growth.
She downgraded the population number on the sign that welcomes visitors to the mythical Alaskan town of Cicely, crossing out 623 and replacing it with the more realistic 607.
``How did you come up with such a precipitous drop?'' Maurice whines. ``Statistically, that's Akron, Ohio, after Firestone took a powder.''
Lest he forget that Continental General Tire Inc. and Michelin Americas Small Tires unit have, or will soon, depart the former ``Rubber City'' for Southern exposures.
Humanitarian
The latest entry in the unofficial ``worst boss'' contest concerns a guy (he shall remain nameless for his own protection) who operates a family-run business somewhere in the Midwest.
When an employee on the job was felled by a heart attack, the boss refused to let co-workers come to the person's assistance.
No word on how the victim fared.
In another instance, an employee missing for three days was later found dead. But, National Public Radio reported, the owner did not tell other concerned employees until the end of the work day that their co-worker's body had been located. He said it would have affected productivity.
No need for a Thanksgiving bonus-those employees already got their turkey.
Another contest
This week's winner in the ``How many acronyms can you cram into a headline'' contest goes to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which sent out a press release stating: ``SEMA joins OEMs in criticism of EPA's proposed `SFTP' rule.'' Huh?