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"I’ll happily buy something, but at the same time, I’m not going to buy three
things. Especially in America, we have to stop overdoing it." -Nick Offerman
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The Progress
Editorial
December 2,2021
From the Staff
Supply chain
crisis & inconvenience
You may not get what you want for
Christmas this year and it has nothing to
do with the naughty or nice list. The
problem is being called a supply chain
crisis and the first thing to recognize is
that it’s more complicated than St. Nick’s
magic toy shop.
There have been several excellent at
tempts to shed some light on it.
As University of North Georgia Pro
fessor Zuoming Liu said with an inter
view with AccessWDUN, anything as
large as the U.S. economy is complex
and in this case it also involves foreign
governments, ports and companies.
Wired magazine (Wired.com), usually
known for its reporting on technology,
did an excellent job breaking down the
problem. The article emphasized that the
supply chain has worked flawlessly for
decades - to the point, we all expect our
packages to show up quickly, with the
aberration being flukes when something
does get lost. We had reached a point we
took it for granted; you clicked on your
computer, put in a credit card number on
Monday and whatever you wanted, not
matter how exotic or faraway, was at the
front door or your business by week’s
end.
However, Wired and others pointed
out, this continued success was based on
the predictably of hundreds of individual
operators - companies, factories in other
countries, ships and whole economies.
Pallets were loaded overseas like clock
work, reached ports after a set number of
days to be unloaded onto trucks that
hauled cargo to warehouses that were
open, and staffed.
As the old saying goes, a chain is only
as strong as its weakest link and the pan
demic set off a series of events showing
the weak links were far more numerous
than the solid ones.
Wired and others’ coverage traced the
breaking point to a combination of ship
ping companies wrongly assuming the
economy would slow with the pandemic,
not anticipating that stimulus checks
prompted people to shift spending from
going out events/dates/vacations to all
sorts of stuff for home offices and quar
antine hobbies - and mostly bought on
line, which requires shipping.
“In the US, stimulus checks sent di
rectly to citizens resulted in a 4.2 percent
month-on-month increase in consumer
spending in March 2021. We’ve also
been encouraged to spend our money on
line, requiring a rapid retooling of the
way that businesses work,” said Marc
Levinson—author of two books on ship
ping containers in the Wired article.
Numerous other fault-lines emerged
including China cutting factory output
substantially, and a shortage of truck
drivers in the U.S. Prof. Liu from UNG
pointed out that a ship may carry 1,000
containers meaning you need 1,000
trucks waiting. A great 60 Minutes seg
ment on the port near Los Angeles told
how there was a substantial problem with
a multitude of empty containers piled up
at the port not leaving room to unload ef
ficiently. The system went into chaos
overwhelmed by too many orders, too
few truckers and logistic problems up
and down the line.
An article from Capitol Beat news
service covering Gov. Brian Kemp and
other GOP governors asking for federal
intervention to get things moving stated,
disruptions due to supply shortage in
creased 638% during the first half of
2021 for essential products, including
semiconductor chips, plastics and card
board. The delay of shipping vessels ar
riving to North American ports from Asia
has ballooned from “14 hours in June
2020 to 13 days in September 2021.”
While there is little the average per
son can do to solve the problem, it may
help to keep in mind the difference be
tween a supply chain crisis and supply
chain inconvenience. Some things are a
crisis very legitimately, such as when
companies can’t operate because of un
delivered inventory or critical parts and
all the employees get an unexpected and
unpaid holiday.
However, when the issue mainly in
volves having to substitute one ingredi
ent for another or when you have to settle
for a different colored item, it’s just in
convenient.
We recognize that for many people
giving awesome gifts at Christmas to
kids or grandchildren is very important.
And this year that may leave many frus
trated, but may we suggest recalling that
a lot of grandparents extol the good ol
days when you only got a few oranges
and a pair of socks you were darn happy
to get. Could be a chance to revisit the
era of less is more this year.
Also on the good side, several media
accounts noted that consumers will do
better at small, local retail shops where
you can see what’s there and leave the
store with a gift, no worries about ship
ping delays.
We fully recognize that for many busi
nesses and employees the supply chain
crisis is truly devastating. But for most of
us simple consumers, a Christmas of
fewer presents and shopping local isn’t a
crisis.
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
Latuson Self Storage
Al Lawson 1188 Talking Rock Rd
Office 706-253-1188 Jasper, GA 30143
Cell 770-893-7221 allawson3@gmail.com
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia. Entered
at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia. 30143 as Mail Matter of Second
Class. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PICKENS COUNTY
PROGRESS, 94 N. Main St., Jasper, GA 30143.
One Year’s Subscription: $39.59 in Pickens County and in Gilmer,
Cherokee, Dawson and Gordon counties; $50.29 in all other Georgia
counties; $59.92 out of state.
Correction: Several peo
ple pointed out that in our
main headline last week
“ATM machine stolen from
Hill City store,” the word
“machine” is superfluous.
ATM stands for Auto
mated Teller Machine and
thus our headline was essen
tially Automated Teller Ma
chine Machine stolen.
Are we asleep at the wheel
you think? See an error.
Let our editor hear
about it,
dpool@pickensprogress.com
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
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#lbe H>cf)ool
Other Voices
Private Performance
The Ballerina Chef gets treated to dinner out on Valen
tine ’s Day.
By Jim Brescia
I never acquired an appre
ciation of ballet. I think that
says more about me than it
does about ballet. But I real
ized while assisting my wife,
Barbara with preparing our
Thanksgiving Day dinner,
that there has been a ballet
dance going on in our kitchen
for years.
It happens in some form
every day but the holidays
are The Nutcracker like per
formances.
When I say I “assisted”
my wife, I mean with slicing
and using the food processer.
The food processer is a
power tool with which I am
comfortable. But, in truth, I
am like a costume maker to
Anna Pavlova (look her up).
A Thanksgiving Day din
ner of turkey, stuffing and
homemade cranberry sauce is
one of my top five meals of
all time. So, I watched the
ballet unfold in our kitchen
with great anticipation.
Ballerina Barbara moved
through the kitchen with
grace and stamina as pots and
pans seemed to float through
the air. The scene was remi
niscent of Disney’s Fantasia.
I thought I saw her pirouette
over to the oven to baste the
turkey.
Measuring cups were not
needed as she tasted every
dish and added a pinch of this
and a shake of that. Some
people view cooking as a
chore but Barbara has always
enjoyed cooking. She says it
is the enjoyment of those
who eat the meal that brings
her satisfaction.
As the aromas began to
permeate the air of our house
and my anticipation in
creased, I realized that
women (and men) all over
the world were performing
their own version of this bal
let for their families and
friends.
There is a talent and grace
involved with preparing a
holiday meal. It provides a
sense of tradition and com
fort that makes the holiday so
special.
So, as our dancer prome
nades to the table with their
creation, we all need to be
sure we tell our danseur or
danseuse that we appreciate
the loving ballet they perform
for us. Excuse me while I
leave to enjoy the “leftovers”
performance.
Jim Brescia is an occasional
contributor to the Progress.
He is involved in several vet
erans groups in the Jasper
area.
Hugh Pendley unsupervised
with a word processor
Quarry vs.
Tunnel
By Hugh Pendley
At the Georgia Marble
Company, a business that has
been in Pickens County for a
very long time, there are two
ways of extracting marble.
Quarries are basically a
hole that goes down into the
earth, large pieces of marble
are removed and hoisted up
and loaded onto trucks or
moved to train cars. This
work is always “out doors”
in the hot and cold. These
quarries have been known to
go deep, even a couple hun
dred feet.
I have often wondered
how many people that have
disappeared are down there.
One time I went with Dad
to the “Georgia,” where the
railroad crosses Highway 53
east of Tate, near the Pink
Mansion. We went by a
small pond that had a cable
around it.
I asked dad what was it,
he said, “An abandoned
quarry.”
I asked, “How deep?”
He said, “Oh, 150 feet.”
For reasons that remain un
clear, this completely un
nerved me. There were large
dump trucks driving by and
the cable would not have
slowed one down if it ran out
of the road and into the
'pond'. There would have
been little chance for the
driver to get out.
Tunnels, on the other
hand, were altogether differ
ent. These went straight into
a mountain. After a short dis
tance they could go down.
These marble tunnels are
safer than coal mines in that
all the marble is not removed
but hollowed out, leaving a
dome on top to prevent a col
lapse like has so often hap
pened in coal mines.
Columns are left to help sup
port the dome.
Here, holes are drilled and
dynamite inserted and set off
to loosen more rock for the
next day. If you are near
Marble Hill and feel the
earth shake they have 'set
off’.
A danger in the tunnels
are chunks of marble can fall
off the top. My wife's dad
told about leaving the huge
dump truck he had driven at
the end of shift and returning
the next morning to find a
chunk had fallen on it, mash
ing it about four feet tall.
If given the choice, I
would prefer the tunnels
since the temperature re
mains about 55 degrees year
round. That would be pleas
ing in July and August and
not below freezing in Janu
ary and February.
I knew the owner of the
“Marble Hill Store” just east
of the intersection of Mc
Clain Mountain Road and
Highway 53. Dad said in
January of 1969 (a journal
entry) that he made $25 dol
lar a day maintaining the
pumps to keep the tunnels
from flooding. Dad acted
like this was a phenomenal
amount to get paid.
During the Cold War, we
were all told these tunnels
would have been an ideal
place to go in case of a nu
clear attack. With the way
things are going today, this
knowledge might come in
handy again.
On the hunt for a few
good writers. If you are in
terested in contributing oc
casional humorous columns,
contact our editor,
dpool@pickensprogress. co
m.