Zeev:
Oh. Quartz is one thing.... quartz shaped like bowls is a job
for Waterford. <g>
I'd be curious about a few things before I took the gentleman's remarks to heart. I'm not saying I have reason to doubt him... I
am saying I have no reason to take his opinion as fact. To wit:
1) While seperate companies, Monsanto & MEMC are still pretty
close, not only geographically, but human relationships when WFR
& MTC were one. Due to the recent spin-off of Solutia by MTC, none
of the insiders have been able to exercise employee stock options.
They've watched MTC slip from high 40's to low 40's with their hands
tied.
2) IMO, and just IMO, if I was Solutia, I'd be real depressed...
probably taking limbrium or something by now. They got lot's of
debt and pension liability. On the plus(?) side, they got MTC's
carpet fiber division & their airplane grease division. (When
you think of Monsanto, I'm sure carpets and the equivalent of
a Jiffy Lube for jets are the first 2 products that come to mind.)
If any of this group was in attendance, there may have been long faces. It was not WFR employees only, as the fellow stated his friend
who was there wasn't an employee.
3) I wonder if the guy is a Wash U student who got blown off by their
recruiter. Maybe I'm the only vindictive SOB on earth, but if I
have an axe and there is a wheel near by.....).
4) This is a very general & blatantly unsupportable observation,
but the picnic was for physicists & silicon engineers. While You, and a large number of highly intelligent individuals I've "met"
here have an excellent sense of humor, I would be surprised
if such an outing typically turns into a schnapps & beer chugging contest. Depending on the fellows' age, "sad" may be the
equivalent of "reserved behavior" at a company outing.
(Btw, if you have already surmised my boss doesn't let me out
of the office to attend public functions very often, you are
correct. <g>)
5) Finally, the "sad faces" could have actually been the reaction
of people drinking out of the punch bowl after a prankster dumped
a liter of Acetic anhydride in it. (would tend to give you a bitter
look. <g>)
Too many possibilities. If it were material information, I'd think the company would announce an expected shortfall. They have in the past.
Doug |
