Volume 9, Issue 5                    November/December  2005

DEAR READER
        BRIGID O'LEARY

What's Your Extirpation?

Extirpate: /ékst rpayt/ v.tr. root out; destroy completely. Extirpation. Last year for Christmas I received one of those “word-of-the-day” calendars that is supposed to help broaden my vocabulary. I absolutely loved this gift and find great joy and amusement in tearing off the page each day to uncover a new word. However, one day at the beginning of September, I was struck by the fact that when I did so, the new word of the day was “extirpate” and the example sentence used it with regard to a hurricane and the clean up afterward. 

It gave me goose bumps. Or maybe it was the air-conditioning that made me shiver; I’m not sure, but I do know that I have air-conditioning and I’m safe and happy in my air-conditioned office and air-conditioned home, while there are millions of displaced people throughout the United States who do not have a place to truly call home or job to go to.
At any rate, at the time I learned my new word the country was between hurricanes. We here at Window Film headquarters were scrambling to make sure we had hurricane coverage in each of the sister magazines that our parent company, Key Communications Inc., publishes, some of which were already at the printer. What I learned while talking to numerous people across several industries, is that no one could have expected just how much damage—physical, psychological and emotional—either storm alone could have caused, much less two so close together, and that the future of the cities and industries affected is still unclear. For more information and reports from the field, please see our hurricane coverage, which starts on page 10.

As a nation, we’re still reeling from the aftermath, but life goes on—for each of us and for our friends and neighbors who are being allowed back to where their homes once stood. For the rest of us, time doesn’t stop. We have to keep working and forging on. So what do we do? We do as we always have, and though it may seem decadent and strange, considering the conditions in the Gulf Coast, many of us are still gearing up for a raucous time at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in November. If you’re able to attend, you’ll want to check out our guide to what to expect, which starts on page 32. We’ll have a review in the next issue, too, of course, but if you really want to know what happens in Vegas, you need to go to Vegas.

For those of you who may not be heading to the show, we also present to you the first part of a two-part article about difficult installations; we’re focusing on difficult auto installations in this issue, what makes an auto installation difficult and how different members of the industry tackle problem jobs and next time we’re taking a look at difficult architectural/flat glass installations.

Meanwhile, I’m still pulling new words off of my word-a-day calendar, trying to work the word “wonky” into an article (and, with any luck, the contents page) but I’d like to leave you with a closing thought: If Las Vegas leaves you feeling crapulous, and funambulism seems beyond your reach, and omphaloskepsis doesn’t restore your senses, a 
visit to your local alienist might be in order. Our thoughts and best wishes to the members of the window film industry who were most affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Brigid O’Leary is the editor of Window Film magazine.

WINDOW FILM
©2005 Key Communications Inc All rights reserved. 
No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission. 
385 Garrisonville Road, Suite 116, Stafford, VA  22554
Phone: 540/720-5584, Fax: 540/720-5687 e-mail: film@glass.com