I have successfully avoided talking about this all day, but I guess it’s time to bite the bullet.

A few weeks ago, I wondered what would happen when our company got sold. Now I get to find out: Primedia has sold Primedia Business (which includes the five Meetings Group magazines) to Wasserstein & Co., LP, through its U.S. Equity Partners II, LP investment partnership.

The sale will be completed at some point this fall. I have no idea what this will mean to me, my colleagues, or our magazines and Web sites, but I’m hoping that it’s all good. Everything should be pretty much status quo until the ink is dry in a few months. We had some pretty huge (for us) changes when Primedia bought us from Adams Business Media, some of which turned out to be positive, some not so positive, and some just administrative. Who knows what the future may bring—wish us luck!

Well duh, don’t we all these days? But according to this article in the NY Times (free reg. req’d), “Data from the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics last week showed that this was shaping up to be the worst year for departure delays since 2000. In the year through June, nearly one in five flights, or 17 percent, left airports late.” And it’s even worse for some flights:

Six flights from airlines like United, Delta, Independence Air and, yes, AirTran were delayed 100 percent of the time for a full month this year.

Tell attendees to bring a couple of good books to read—they may be at the airport for a while.

The Market Metrix Hospitality Index for the second quarter of this year found Ritz-Carlton ranked highest in customer satisfaction among hotels, and JetBlue among airlines. Somehow, this fails to shock me. Guest satisfaction overall is still declining, though, as is hotel guest loyalty.

The study also found that guests’ experience with the hotel staff is key to retaining/gaining loyalty: “Hotel guests who report having a problem with a hotel staff member are 43 percentage points less likely to return to that hotel than guests who did not experience a problem.”

It doesn’t say if the reason why women business travelers have more problems than men, but I’d hazard a guess that this also is related to how women are treated by staff, as opposed to their male counterparts, especially since the most likely to report a problem are 40-something females traveling for business. As someone who falls into this demographic, I have noticed that men tend to get better treatment than women—or is it just that women expect more, and so are more easily disappointed when the service doesn’t measure up?

Oh wow, check out this article in Forbes about a technology that can be used to remotely control the direction a person aims toward. If this ever became mainstream, just imagine hordes of drunken-appearing attendees weaving their way through the aisles of a trade show as exhibitors try to sway them to come to their booths! (If you go there, check out the video—she really does look drunk.)

At the 2005 SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Los Angeles this week, NTT researchers debuted a device designed to exploit the effects of GVS. Known as “Shaking the World,” the project is the result of research carried out by NTT researcher Taro Maeda. Maeda and his colleagues constructed a headphone-like apparatus to deliver the electrical current and a small radio control to direct the strength and direction of the signal. Whoever wears such headphones can be steered by remote control.

Conference attendees lined up to try to maintain their balance as an NTT spokesperson gently steered them left and right. Some attempted to counteract the current’s effects, while others almost ran into the crowd of onlookers as they stumbled haplessly along. But nearly everyone was curious.

Where might this research lead?

Nowhere I want to go, except maybe it’d be useful for flight simulation training. I can see it being incorporated into theme park rides, too, as another way to make virtual reality a little more real.

I just ran across The New Charm School, which had lots of interesting stuff. For example, this post points out the practical reason to keep the sexy stuff out of the office:

According to a recent Tulane University study of MBA-degreed working women aged mid-20s to 60, nearly half had at some point engaged in sexualized behavior - such as crossing their legs provocatively, letting men linger at certain places of their body while hugging them, or implying they were attracted to certain men, even if they were not - to get ahead in their careers.

However, data showed that those who said they had not used sexual behavior as a career strategy earned an average of three promotions and were earning an average of $75,000-100,000 a year.

The women who chose behaviors like intentionally leaning over so that men could look down their shirts, telling male co-workers they looked sexy, and massaging the shoulders and backs of their male co-workers at the office, had only received two promotions, and had average earnings of $50,000 to $75,000 annually.

There are lots more interesting items over there, especially for women looking for career advice.

This is what makes all these hot and steamy days worthwhile: Last night we had what we call “The Sauce,” and it was so the essence of summer that I have to share.

Grab a bunch of tomatoes fresh off the vine or from a farm stand (they have to be fresh!)—half a dozen or so work fine. Chop them up with a couple of handfuls of mushrooms, about a half-cup of chopped fresh basil, a couple of minced garlic cloves, a half-pound of shredded mozzarella, a pinch of salt, and enough olive oil to make it all juicy. Let it meld at room temperature for a while, then serve over pasta with some parmesan on top.

Anyone have any good zucchini or cucumber recipes to share? Our garden runneth over, but our ideas on what to do with the stuff isn’t.

I’m participating in the blogjam over at Fast Company Now, which is a lot of fun. Check it out: Johnnie’s talking about changing the world and Jeff’s getting holistic about innovation–and all I want to talk about is jerks in the workplace! Here’s what I posted there:

While of course we’d all like to work with competent, likeable people, I found it really interesting that, when given a choice in this Fast Company poll between working with someone who is less skilled and likeable and someone who is more competent and a jerk, 90 percent chose more likeable over more competent.

What I find even more fascinating is how people interpreted the question, particularly the word “skill,” which people took to mean everything from intelligence to talent to creativity in the poll’s comment section and elsewhere (for example, here and here).

If the question had replaced the word “skill” with “creativity,” “talent,” and “intelligence,” would your answer change? Having interpreted “skill” as being more along the lines of knowing how to use the tools of a particular trade (a software program, say, or a hammer), I voted with the majority. But I could be swayed to the other side, mainly because I can’t imagine not being able to find something to like in a truly talented, creative, and intelligent person.

Do these qualities trump jerkitude in your mind? Or do they actually make a person more of a jerk because all that talent, creativity, and intelligence might make them impatient with–and jerkier to–those who don’t play in the same sandbox?

And, while you can teach skills (as I define them, anyway), can you train employees to be more likeable? Should you, given the value so many appear to place on likeability?