Patience and Fortitude turn 100

Patience and Fortitude, the lions outside The New York Public Library, are about to have their 100th birthdays and the City of New York is looking for creative ways to celebrate. (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/in-honor-of-a-century-of-patience-and-fortitude/?hp)

What would you suggest to help New Yorkers honor these symbols?

For that matter, does your organization have an important, significant, memorable milestone on the horizon? Are you going to celebrate it? Who will be involved? How will you make it an occasion? These are nice opportunities to share memories and reminiscences and extend the corporate history - real and folkloric - throughout the organization.

(I know that I posted something about this earlier, but these kinds of occasions are such low-hanging fruit in terms of having fun in the workplace that I have never understood why they aren't "plucked" more regularly.)

Word Search Game

Word Search is a little game that can be adapted to almost any end. Here is an example in which people are asked to find "fun" words:

G C J T Q N P E R D P N T E E

Q H H O N V R E M L G S N E D

U J N U Z E T P A W F N E H G

Z R I Q C H M Y Y P C I M E Z

H P N U G K F E X S F C I E T

B M K U U U L W S G N K R T F

G P A F L Z H E M U R E R B I

F L I N R O Y X R R M R E B H

Y R E L O O F M O T Q A M T S

J S H P W F U N R T S M R P L

S O E I L A I V T X I I A V C

P E Y Q Y Z F J N Y M G D S B

E Z P K H A J F C H O R T L E

U P F S U I X N U T F U F R L

K R E L G G I G V G Y P O A Y

AMUSEMENT

CHORTLE

CHUCKLE

FUN

GIGGLE

GUFFAW

JOY

LAUGHTER

MERRIMENT

MIRTH

PLAYFULNESS

SNICKER

TEEHEE

TOMFOOLERY

WHOOPEE

You can easily imagine other grids that enlighten, inform and/or amuse that are applicable to your workplace.

Here is one place on the Web where you can find a Word Search builder: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

I'm sure there are others.

Dress Up Day

There was a time when Casual Workdays were the exception and not the rule. But now, at least in the Silicon Valley part of the Bay Area, the opposite is true. So, how about flipping things around and having a Dress Up Day every now and again, i.e., once a business quarter or academic semester or whatever you feel appropriate? Give everyone the opportunity (and option) to come in all spiffed up. To add to the fun, the Arts & Crafts people in the organization - and there always are some - could be asked to create paper corsages and boutonnieres to enhance the effect!

My guess is that this will get a positive reaction from the members of your organization and the people who come in to use your services.

It's a Game: Your List of Happy, Cheerful, Fun Song Titles: Part 2

Here is the list of song titles that you created, and we got to 50. You'll notice that the list of titles expanded from the narrow criteria I suggested to a wider and richer selection - that is one of the neat things about games like this - they grow in the playing!

Great Job everyone, and Thanks!

1. Walking on Sunshine
2. Smile
3. Get Happy!
4. Make 'em Laugh
5. Don't Worry, Be Happy
6. Good Day, Sunshine
7. I Feel Good
8. An die Freude
9. You Are the Sunshine of my Love
10. You Are My Sunshine
11. Happy Trails To You
12. Celebrate Good Times
13. I Get a Kick Out of You
14. Put on a Happy Face
15. Joy the the World (Hoyt Axton/Three Dog Night version)
16. When You're Smiling
17. Let a Smile be Your Umbrella
18. Whistle While You Work
19. Lovely Day
20. Sunny
21. It's a Good Day
22. Ain't We Got Fun?
23. Fun, Fun, Fun
24. California Sun (Yea we're out there having fun in the warm California sun)
25. Let the Good Times Roll
26. I Love to Laugh
27. Make Someone Happy
28. Happy Days Are Here Again
29. What a Wonderful World
30. Good Vibrations
31. Sunny Side of Life
32. Keep on the Sunny Side
33. Shiny Happy People
34. Happy Talk
35. Blue Skies are gonna clear up, Put on a Happy Face
36. Good Morning, Starshine
37. Here Comes the Sun
38. Good Morning, Good Morning (The Beatles)
39. Good Morning! (Singing in the Rain)
40. So Happy Together
41. Happy Happy, Joy Joy
42. On The Sunny Side of the Street
43. Keep Your Sunny Side Up
44. I Want to be Happy
45. Oh Happy Day
46. Look for the Silver Lining
47. Smile Darn Ya, Smile
48. We're Off to See the Wizard
49. Happy Go Lucky Me
50. You Got Trouble (for it's infectious spirit!)
51. It's a Lovely Day Today
52. Wouldn't it be Loverly?
53. It's a Good Day for Singing a Song
54. My Funny Valentine
55. Happy Birthday
56. With a Smile and a Song
57. Can't Smile Without You
58. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
59. Feelin' Groovy
60. Funny Face
61. High Hopes

And 2 compilation lists:
http://www.who-sang-that-song.com/happy-title-songs.html
http://www.who-sang-that-song.com/smile-title-songs.html

5/28/12

Just heard another one: "Are you havin' any fun?" I especially like this:

"Are you havin' any fun?
What y'gettin' out o' livin'?
What good is what you've got
If you're not havin' any fun?"

(Sammy Fain / Jack Yellin)

And, for an even better fun song time, just add a Kazoo solo and that should perk things right up :)

It's a Game: Let's Make a List of Happy Song Titles - Part 1

I have been trying to think of songs that have the word "laugh" in the title. All I could come up with were Make 'em Laugh, from Singin' in the Rain, and I Love to Laugh, from Mary Poppins. Surely there must be more, yes? Then I tried to think of song titles that had the words smile or happy or fun or other such upbeat words and I found myself flailing, although I did come up with Happy Talk from South Pacific and Smile and On the Sunny Side of the Street and Happy Days are Here Again and then, nothing. Clearly I have not spent enough time listening to any form of popular music!

So, please let me out by suggesting song titles that have happy words or sentiments in the them. Without having a clue as to what's involved, I'd love to see if we can get to 50!

Thanks!

===============================================

(Later that night...as they say in the movies)

Okay - so I posted this request to Facebook to get more people involved - always a good technique for having fun at home, in the workplace, or anywhere - and already I have collected an impressive list of song titles which I will share with you tomorrow.

And this is how easy it is or can be to initiate a fun, playful or humorous event in your organization. Think of something you are interested in; invite others to participate; and, with a little luck, you've created a pleasant diversion, which is a pretty good outcome.

Thanks - and please keep those song titles coming :)

===============================================

4/6/11

Now, what to do with the song titles that have been collected. (Sorry to not have this list, but I am still getting contributions!)  Here are a couple of ideas:

1) Have your team, work group, organization, etc., create a Sound Track for themselves and then use selected titles for encouragement (Smile), completion of a projects (Celebration), to perk of  up the day (I Feel Good) or when only a song title will express what you feel (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) - you get the idea. You could invest a little money in an iTunes account (or something similar) and have these songs at the ready; or you could make lyrics available for ensemble singing; or you could forward the title and lyrics as appropriate. Then, on a regular basis, change the Sound Track, establish new favorite songs, etc. until the idea wears thin and it's time to  move on to something else.

2) Invite your colleagues to test their creativity by asking them to weave the most song titles into a short story. Have a story reading and enjoy the efforts - I'll guess some laughing might take place! Reward everyone who participates with something simple like a coffee card in a reasonable amount or a gift card to the campus or local bookstore, etc. I think this one is more about participation than determining winners or best in class, but you could certainly do that too.

Enjoy!