National Donut Day - June 1

The first Friday in June is acknowledged as National Donut Day. (See http://donutdayusa.com/) There's nothing to it but to bring donuts to the office and declare an official moment of donutosity and eat your favorite with joy and panache (although I think donuts taste better with coffee and/or milk).

I happen be a big fan of chocolate old fashioneds and that is what I plan to celebrate with. What about you?

Gender differences in humor?

There is another interesting article in my local paper today written by Venessa Wong of Bloomberg Businessweek on a recently published report published by Judith Baxter of Ashton University's School of Language & Social Sciences in the U.K. One of her findings is that jokes told by female senior professionals are often perceived as "contrived, defensive or just mean." And, "more than 80% of women's jokes [in the study] were met with silence."

Why? Well, you'll have to read the whole article and maybe even locate the study to get the full scoop.

Still, I would very much like to hear from women in leadership positions to get their perception of whether this study rings true for them; and why or why or not.

Fun Compliments - Wish I'd Thought of These

"You are the HIGH in my NOON, the FLAP in my JACK, the JELLY in my BEAN, the HOP in my SCOTCH, the FORTUNE in my COOKIE, the GRAND in my CANYON, the BEES in my KNEES, the ZIG in my ZAG, the ROCK in my ROLL, the FOX in my TROT, the POW in my WOW, the GEE in my WHIZ."

--H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

The Importance of Play

I'd like to share a link with you that appears in the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/26/MNN01OLVQ4.DTL

There is much in this article about the importance of play; and those who read this Blog  even occasionally will know that I use humor, fun, laughter, play interchangeably. The article makes the case for play in our lives (and that includes work). I'd like to highlight just a couple of points:

"Play is strongly linked to physical and mental health."

"...employees, when given free time even at work, often produce creative ideas that improve their workplaces."

"...playful social interaction is strongly affected by dopamine, endorphins and other neurotransmitters that are also intimately linked to the motivational and pleasurable aspects of food, drugs and sex. The brain regions where positive emotions and motivation originate also mediate play."

(Some of the material cited in this article and post is from Stuart Brown, co-author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul.")

As the summer fun season approaches, what are you doing to bring yourself and others the opportunity for fun, fun, fun ('til daddy takes the t-bird away).