Editorial No sale for Sudbury slag

You’ve no doubt heard of the “Pet Rock,” which a few years back made a fortune in the U.S. and here for its inventor. As P. T. Barnum said, there’s one born every minute, and we continue to fall for such examples of con-man ingenuity.

It seems however, that at least the American public is not getting equally excited about the idea of buying a sample of Sudbury, Ont., rock. The millions of readers of the publication U.S.A. Today have been invited in an ad in that paper to buy a “genuine piece of Sudbury slag,” (Inco style) for just $7 a chunk. The ad was placed by Sudbury entrepreneur Rod Crombie, who evidently believes there are customers out there panting to buy after the recent appearance of a Sports Illustrated article talking once again about the rocky Sudbury moonscape — the place where U.S. astronauts did their training for moon walks. Crombie, though, appears to have miscalculated — the suckers are not, (or at least not yet) stepping up.

The whole thing, however, does tend to intensify the problem for poor old Sudbury, and its principal mining residents, Inco and Falconbridge. They’ve been taking a beating for years, imagewise, from stuff like this. While Sudbury may still not be described as a veritable Garden of Eden, both the companies and the community have done a pretty outstanding job of greening the city and its surroundings. Rock City it isn’t, not any more.

We’re all for the entrepreneurial spirit, and even for the idea of getting rid of some of the rock, but for larger public relations reasons we hope Mr Crombie’s rock never becomes that much of a pet.