Kickstart: A quarter-mile-long slip and slide? Hold my beer

What would you consider to be a long ride on a slip and slide? Twenty feet? Two hundred feet?

That's child's play, according to the folks at the Canaan Valley Resort in Davis, W.Va. On July 1, they plan to set up a 2,021-foot slip and slide – that's 0.38 of a mile – to try to break the current world record.

They're using the generic term slip and slide, so I'm assuming they aren't using an authentic Slip 'N Slide, invented by Robert Carrier in 1961 and currently made by Wham-O. So please, corporate lawyers at Wham-O, don't send me a form letter reminding me that Slip 'N Slide is a registered trademark. (Note to nonjournalists: If you mention Frisbee or a Hula-Hoop in a news story without capitalizing the name, you always get a letter from Wham-O.)

The company responsible for the world record attempt is Natural Light Beer. The current world slip and slide record, 2,007 feet, was set in 2015 in Jordan. Natty Light wants to bring the world record back to the United States, where it belongs.

What better time to do that than Independence Day weekend?

This is a big story in the Detroit area, where I live: Faygo Beverages Inc.'s new summer soda flavor, called Firework, is so popular that it's prompted bidding wars on eBay.

Catherine Kavanaugh wrote about the plastics angle to Firework this week. Plymouth, Mich.-based Plastipak Packaging Inc. used a patented direct object printing technology to decorate the PET bottles, helping to bring the drink to market in record time.

Digital advances meant the artwork could be approved and produced the same day, she noted. Faygo started filling production in days compared to its traditional lead time of six to eight weeks for printed labels.

The process makes for an easy-to-recycle bottle, too. But if you get your hands on a bottle of Firework right now, it's probably going to end up on a display shelf, not in your recycling bin. The flavor is sold out just about everywhere, and people are trying to get $10-$50 a bottle on eBay, according to local reports.

Working in an office has its benefits, but it can't beat visiting a manufacturing plant, talking to folks about the business and seeing machines making products.

I was reminded of the fun of a factory visit by Rachel Abbey McCafferty's recent blog in our sister newspaper Crain's Cleveland Business. It caught my eye because she starts with a plastics mention: Her first plant tour was injection molder Thogus Products Co. in Avon Lake, Ohio.

On the manufacturing beat, "you get to really learn how the world works," she writes.

"Every single thing we buy or borrow or use is made by someone who has taken an idea and figured out exactly how to make it a reality. We place our trust in manufacturers every time we get on a plane or sit on a chair or run a dishwasher. Whenever we start up our cars or visit the doctor's office for a checkup. Whenever we turn on our computers or rest on our beds at night."

Well said. And without manufacturing, what would we write about?