French offiials can be just as bad as others as I found out in pre Al-Quaeda times when I said to the officer searching my bag: "Nice job you've done, you've found four of the five compartments in my bag."

Now I know a bit more about work conditions in some jobs. Many people in the jobs requiring contact with many different people do hate one thing: If the same predictable wise-crack is told for the fiftenth time a day and the person expects them to see the funny side of it. It is boring, utterly boring and they all wish the people who think they are funny would tell their jokes somewhere else.

They still should be polite but it is sometimes very hard.

Wolfgang