By Fos, the Rat: Last week we finished with the case of the disgruntled ex-employee's case being set for trial. This week, we will cover a case coming before the court of a sneaky truck driver who may or may not have been colluding with the mill's scale operator.

By Fos, the Rat: Once again, I am glad to be back, thanks to Mr. Jim. This is the twelfth year of Pulp Rats! August seems to come earlier and earlier each year. As I mentioned last year, I have been given permission to open up the world of rat adjudication a bit further. Let's look in on a preliminary proceeding...

There is a 1964 Corvair in our garage. It is a 4-speed convertible, white with red interior. It is kept cleaner than our newer "daily drivers." It has no rust, does not leak oil or anything else. I'll help you out with the math--it is 62 years old. The point is, age has nothing to do with housekeeping. No matter what age your paper machine and its ancillary equipment may be, you have no excuse for not keeping it clean and orderly.

My favorite test to determine a candidate's pre-disposition for neatness is to ask at a random time during the interview process if we can go out and look at their car. If they volunteer that this is OK, no problem. If they hedge, I will not hire them.

I have written in this column before that I can tell the effectiveness of management in a given mill as I drive into the parking lot. I'll not repeat that but rather move to more granular insights. I visited a mill a few years ago. It was easy to visit with the top executive in the site--many years ago, he and I had made a fact-finding trip to mills in Sweden and Finland. He was not the senior executive back then--he had been the pulp mill manager. At the time of the visit I reference here, things were different. His office was a mess...