From Here to Paris: Get Laid Off, Buy a Barge in France, Take it to Paris

This is a story of shucking the briefcase, losing the tie, and floating 26 tons of riveted iron through France to Paris. The perky young Vice President of Human Resources touched me on the shoulder and said, "Have a nice life." That moment, standing in the parking lot with my personal possessions in a cardboard box and my severance papers stuffed in my pocket, I thought, "Why the hell not?" The anarchist inside me was urging me back into the building to play carelessly with matches, but ins...