Day 342: Looking smart, or at least trying...

It occurred to me as I was unpacking my bags last night that I failed to pack a tie.  An understandable oversight considering I "seldom" wear a suit and tie.  (In this case "seldom" equals "never").  Now when I visit my corporate offices in Boston I'll bring along a suit because as our senior leaders try to project a more informal, roll up your sleeves type of image, a suit, sans tie, is the uniform of the day.  But today I'm visiting our business development offices in Washington DC, ground zero for our great country.  Here everyone is dressed to the 9's.  Hey, our politicians and corporate whores may be driving this country into the ground but they look good doing it. 

Now what to do.  Given that I'm in Crystal City there are plenty of places one can pick up a tie, or so I thought.  After some scouting around I managed to find a suit shop that I think was a front for an al-Qaeda terror cell, but that's another story.  Wow, I gotta stop watching "Homeland".  Anyway, I kinda learned that picking out a tie is much like voting for a political candidate.  First, all the choices are horrible and those that are more popular (look better) tend to come at a great cost (more taxes, bigger price tag).  So this became a matter of choosing the least ugly (or lesser of two evils) tie.  Hopefully it won't be a distraction during my briefing.  Worst case I figured it could serve as an opening joke to help lighten the mood.  And I'm going to need all the help I can get.  It's a Friday afternoon meeting and the only thing between my audience and their weekend is me.  Damn, should've brought my juggling balls.