I have found Halloween to be a bellwether of how a company culture truly is.

Is the company relaxed and open to folks coming into work in wacky costumes? Are there team themes that compete for top prize? Or perhaps the company asks that no one dress up at all.

I have found myself in all three and currently find myself in the last group.

At first I was a bit surprised, but now I realize not dressing up might be the best thing ever.

I am a bit reserved and I always found dressing up to be a major chore and distraction.

There is always the task of finding an outfit that is both unique and also work appropriate. Inevitably someone shows up wearing a costume that is deemed inappropriate.

This, of course, is followed by a mandatory HR meeting describing what is and is not appropriate attire in the office.

The big day arrives. Some participate while others sit it out.

You have a party that truly feels like mandatory fun time and then you go home.

Instead, my work day today was sans drama and hijinks.

We came to work and did what needed to be done. Then we left early because our company realizes we have a life outside the office.

I have to say this is probably the best culture fit I have had in quite some time.

Image credit: DaPuglet

It’s amazing to me, but looking back at more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.

I wrote this Halloween post exactly 10 years ago and the costume is even scarier today. The character described has added to their tricks list, including hospitals, connected cars, IoT devices and ransomware, to name just a few.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I liked Halloween long before it became big business—about a third of what is spent on the highest spending holiday (no, not Christmas; Mother’s Day at $20+ billion).

That said, my Halloweens have shrunk since I left San Francisco for the small town I live in now.

What hasn’t changed is my penchant to write rhymes for the occasion—my contribution to the October 31^st fright factor.

So here are this year’s offerings; you can see previous efforts here and here.

Scary News
Halloween’s a spooky night
when people pay to engage in fright.
I’ve never understood that yearning
to scream at something seen on turning.
Witches, warlocks, the walking dead
or someone who has lost their head.
Tonight the scares come by ones and twos—
the rest of the year just read the news.

Black Friday on Halloween
Halloween comes but once a year
a night that’s filled with fun and fear.
It used to be for children small
‘til merchants fell beneath its thrall.
They, in turn, enthralled adults
who willingly spend to provide results.
2014 will prove a record,
with 7 plus billion dollars expected.

Flickr Image credit: WxMom

Halloween 2014

I liked Halloween long before it became big business—about a third of what is spent on the highest spending holiday (no, not Christmas; Mother’s Day at $20+ billion).

That said, my Halloweens have shrunk since I left San Francisco for the small town I live in now.

What hasn’t changed is my penchant to write rhymes for the occasion—my contribution to the October 31^st fright factor.

So here are this year’s offerings; you can see previous efforts here and here.

Scary News

Halloween’s a spooky night

when people pay to engage in fright.

I’ve never understood that yearning

to scream at something seen on turning

Witches, warlocks, the walking dead

or someone who has lost their head.

Tonight the scares come by ones and twos

The rest of the year just read the news.

Black Friday for Halloween

Halloween comes but once a year

a night that’s filled with fun and fear.

It used to be for children small

‘til merchants fell beneath its thrall.

They, in turn, enthralled adults

who willingly spend to provide results.

2014 will prove a record,

with more than 7 billion dollars expected.

Flickr Image credit: WxMom

Looking back on previous Halloween posts I seem to have written rhymes for most of them (here’s a link to past efforts).

No one’s thrown any rotten eggs, so I guess I’ll do another one.

On the other hand, no one’s said anything positive, either.

Anyway, here are my contributions to the 2012 treats and tricks—or possibly part of the horror show.

Halloween is the night for spooks,
but mostly I run into kooks;
they dress kind of funny
even look like a bunny,
but are fast to put up their dukes.

Oops, that’s pretty lame; let me try again.

There was a young lady named Sue
who was invited to a Halloween do.
She hemmed and she hawed,
found a costume that awed
and so sexy the guys formed a queue.

<sigh> Not much of an improvement, but the third is supposed to be the charm, so here goes.

If you’re sexy and you know it clap your hands.
If you’re sexy and you know it clap your hands.
If you’re sexy and you know it Halloween’s the time to show it
If you’re sexy and you know it clap your hands.

If you’re sexy and you know it make your plans.
If you’re sexy and you know it make your plans.
Remember vampires they show it, while ghosts don’t even know it
If you’re sexy and you know it make your plans.

So much for the charm; it’s more like a hex.

I’m sure you can do better; please do so in comments.

And may your Halloween outshine my rhymes by at least a billion watts.

Flickr image credit: hanna horwarth

It’s Halloween 2011
when sugar highs will reach to heaven.
Extravagant costumes and parties galore,
even with an eviction notice on the front door.
Spending is up, forget the economy,
a billion for costumes and more for gastronomy.

Some costumes are sexy, some are just fun;
some are so scary you’ll just want to run.
But how ever you dress and whatever you do,
be sure it is fun and leaves a happier you!

This is not one of my better efforts; here is a sampling of previous and much better Halloween fare.

Halloween Success Story
There was a student named Delf
who had a high opinion of self
He truly believed that with nary a sigh,
he could start a company that would fly high.

He founded it on Halloween (more…)

Scary times require rhymes
It’s Halloween and things are scary—
the economy is really hairy;
your savings trashed, your mortgage iffy
and it can’t be fixed in a NY jiffy.

Today is the start of the holiday season, (more..)

A Halloween economy
Bats and witches and pumpkins, oh my,
bailouts and options and fat cats who sigh;
a Treasury Secretary deep in the fold
and stock that reeks like decades old mold.

For Halloween you want a costume that scares, (more…)

I hope you have a howling good time!

Flickr image credit: ^^RaviN^^

After wasting more than an hour looking for interesting Halloween quotes I decided there weren’t any that I didn’t use last year. James Joyce, on the other hand, said many interesting things and some of them are make useful guidelines for anyone working to get ahead.

“A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Whether you consider yourself a genius or not, look for opportunities the next time you screw up instead of running for cover.

Joyce understood that everything we do in the present influences who we become, or, in his own words, “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” He phrased it more simply a different time, “I am who I am because of who I was.”

If you just saw these words today you would probably attribute them to some current entrepreneur or corporate honcho, but they were uttered by Joyce more than 70 years ago, “I want to work with the top people, because only they have the courage and the confidence and the risk-seeking profile that you need.”

Most of us think a bit of immortality would be pretty cool, but Joyce made sure he of his—and it worked. “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”

Image credit: WikiMedia Commons

Halloween has always been a favorite happening of mine, long before it became one of the top five retailing holidays (actually, I think I read that it is number two). I’ve always looked forward to trick or treating—when I was a kid it meant candy, but these days it has a

First for the tricks.

Trick 1 – I’m sure it will come as no surprise that the rich are getting richer, unlike the rest of us and now it’s been well-quantified.

The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades…

Trick 2 – I take this trick very personally, in spite of the fact that I’ve been guilty of doing it on occasion. The problem is that, like many tricks, it can backfire in ways you’d never think.

“From his perspective [iPhone user] they look like a view of, er, splayed lady parts: ({}). He then ran around his lab showing colleagues excitedly what I had just sent him. Half (mostly men) concurred with his interpretation, and the others (mostly women) didn’t and probably thought he was kind of a desperate perv.” –Lisa M. Bates, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia (Blackberry user)

Now come the treats.

Treat 1 – Just in time for Halloween, comes scientific information that may help alleviate any guilt you feel for indulging in some of those bit-size candy bars your kids will collect.

Most people, he said, will be more satisfied by eating a 50-calorie cupcake than a dozen carrot sticks with just as many calories, because the sense of deprivation is less and the craving for “bad” food is calmed, if not entirely extinguished. “Smaller treats give people license to eat it all, which is a very powerful thing,” he said. “Psychologically, it’s exciting and comforting.” –Brian Wansink, Cornell professor and the author of “Mindless Eating”

Treat 2 – In my humble opinion I saved the best for last. May I present you with a link to (sound of trumpets, roll of drums) the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize winners and they are truly superb this year—as they are every year. It makes you wonder how they can keep improving. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ig Nobels, here is a sampling to whet your appetite.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of JAPAN, for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.

REFERENCE: US patent application 2010/0308995 A1. Filing date: Feb 5, 2009.

LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that’s even more important.

REFERENCE: “How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done,” John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996. Later republished elsewhere under the title “Structured Procrastination.”

Enjoy!

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Disappointing. I thought there would be much better commentary on the second largest party day of the year, but I gleaned what I thought you would find interesting.

Paul Wiehl said, “I like the concept of Halloween, but I don’t like the cost.” Boy is that true; Americans spend $2 billion on candy alone and then start shopping for the rest.

Craig McDonald believes that Halloween has grown because of a basic human craving, “I think a lot more people are getting into Halloween because it’s the one time of year where adults can be kids.”

Jim Timon has a different theory, “People just love to be immersed in a frightening Halloween experience. They love giving up that control.”

Costumes are a necessity and Vickie Capes is one of the smarter people when it comes to Halloween-appropriate attire; you would do well to use her system, “Halloween costumes and Christmas clothing fly off the shelf on eBay. I paid $35 for a Thomas the Tank Engine costume one year and sold it back for $35 the next year.”

Jim Gordon, who draws mY generation (don’t miss tomorrow’s action), told me that his generation see Halloween as the only time they can dress as trashy and obnoxiously as they choose and while popular wisdom backs this attitude up it also proves that it’s nothing new, “Pimps and hookers are always popular Halloween costumes for adults.” What is new is posting the pictures on Facebook, instead of putting them safely in a drawer.

In a more thoughtful vein, someone looked around and realized that there were circumstances that probably spoiled the holiday, “I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.”

Finally, a bit of little known wisdom to help keep you safe this Halloween, since the continued mobility allows for instant revenge.

“Women are angels and when someone breaks our wings we simply continue to fly—on a broomstick.”

Have a wonderful Halloween, eat lots of candy, enjoy yourself and stay safe.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28122162@N04/4062661930/

All my life I’ve written rhymes for certain days and special events or people. Last Halloween I wrote Scary Times Require Rhymes for Leadership Turn and A Halloween Economy at MAPping Company Success.

I’m always surprised when I go back, read one and it doesn’t make me run screaming from the screen.

So, here is Halloween 2009 for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy it, because I had a lot of fun writing it.

Are you attending a party tonight

wearing a costume that inspires fright?

Halloween’s a night for spooks,

for witches, demons and other kooks;

vampires, werewolves, serial killers and more—

all those types who are drenched in gore.

But if you really want to inspire fear

you can do it best with much simpler gear.

All you need is a designer suite, well-styled hair,

a fancy watch and executive chair.

The back story’s simple, you just have to choose

which character best fits your particular ruse.

Hedge fund manager, Wall Street or insurance exec

depends on whose world you are planning to wreck.

Have fun tonight and stay safe!

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Image credit: boydiz on flickr

It’s Halloween and things are scary—

the economy is really hairy;

your savings trashed, your mortgage iffy

and it can’t be fixed in a NY jiffy.

Today is the start of the holiday season,

but to celebrate you need a reason—or do you?

You have a choice to engage your MAP

in doom and gloom or ignore that crap.

What goes up must come down

and the other way around

The pain is real, but it will pass

much faster if you kick gloom’s ass!

Like my rhyme? Here’s another that’s prime.

Your comments—priceless

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