Morning all:

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” — Groucho Marx

Sacre Bleu, what a week this has been. The Sacre Blue bit is in reference to France, where this crazy week all started, but more on that later. I left that country by someone pressing into my hand an invitation to join a rally with one the French Presidential candidates—Nicolas Sarkozy. I arrived here to advertising for ‘debates’ for a position where the current occupant has half a term left. The nutty season is in full swing – everywhere. I’ll stabilize with some well deserved morning coffee.

Should, by chance, you have plans to head for Europe, avoid Charles de Gaulle airport at all cost. The place is a nightmare of chaos and inefficiency, much caused by construction and much just because it’s France. Do anything, travel through Schiphol, Zurich, Brussels, all havens of organization, but avoid the pain of de Gaulle.

Processing through Passport control and security to the gate was a solid two hours of standing in line. Compare that to Atlanta – a busier place – where upon landing you stay in a secure zone – and even starting out, the screening process is an efficient ten minute event.

At Charles de Gaulle the culmination prior to finding your seat is a thirty minute bus ride to wherever they decided to park the flight that day; included in the fun was a race around two temporary roundabouts built for interest sake. And, not any bus ride, but one modeled after the manner in which turkeys are caged and moved to market. Instead of using only one more additional bus they apply a packing process to the point where should anyone of us ‘passengers’ have exhaled someone would have blown through a side window. By the way, just a small afterthought, but it would have caused an amazing amount of “ooh-la-la” had someone been slipped a “little blue pill” fifteen minutes or so prior to this bit of travel adventure. Anyway, thirty minutes in a bus filled with Frenchmen with their arms stretched up in the air — and no air conditioning! It was all too much.

Sort of by accident I discovered a jet-lag prevention technique. First, start by staying up 24 hours straight and then phase into what is a normal late evening to morning sleep cycle. Then go like crazy for the rest of the work week. Voila – zero jet lag.

My week was like that – crazy.

Midweek the paperwork was signed and my employer became the newest member – one of 758 – of companies making up a very successful Fortune 150 company called Illinois Tool Works (ITW). We had been sold.

Personally I think it great since I believe it to be the best way for us to move (here comes a wonderfully trite expression) “to the next level”. Anyway, since I am the spin doctor for the organization, I slipped into high gear; all trying to minimize any FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) from entering our marketplace.

Now the really important news; it is already May and my Deux Chevaux is still in storage. With travel and some late spring cold snaps I had little choice. But, seeing the odd 2CV bouncing around on the roadways in Nice I got that much more anxious to get it driving. By tomorrow evening, top down, all 2 cylinders clanking away, Marcia and I will be spinning around in it.

Make it a great week everyone. Remember, and this became especially important to me this past week, to communicate effectively, to some symmetry could mean where you buried your dead.

Cheers,
Dirk