Laughter has long been noted as a way to reduce stress, adults could benefit by taking time for more fun and less seriousness.    The following is a short list to consider to ease stress.   Make a list of everything you have already done, check everything off   When someone says "Have a nice day", nicely tell them you have other plans.   Make a list of things to do that you have already done.   Take off your shoes and walk on the grass.  Do this while in your business suit   Stop and smell the weeds   Buy bubbles and blow bubbles when you are most stressed (see our article on breath and stress)   Dance naked in front of your pets - they may cover their eyes, but they probably won't laugh   Dilbert Awards   One person made a difference with a dance and a smile.   Words of wisdom   May you always be validated   Fun Facts   Identity theft concerns at Spring   Laughter is an Instant Vacation   Food so adorable you don't want to eat it.    Error messages we finally understand   Headlines   Illusions   Dog Quotes   Question Hell   Fun with food   Handy Tips   more to come - what is your most fun way to reduce stress? Tell us     January 16th is National Nothing Day. My question is, are we actually suppose to celebrate, or by celebrating would we be doing something and defeating the whole purpose of a holiday for doing nothing?     words of wisdom On a lighter note - words of wisdom(??) Don't worry about what people think - they don't do it very often. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip. Men are from earth.  Women are from earth.  Deal with it. A balanced diet is a brownie in each hand. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it. Experience is a wonderful thing.  It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. Some one who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. You should not confuse your career with your life. Nobody cares if you can't dance well.  Just get up and dance. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside - we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.      more fun silly....   Fun Facts Life in the 1500s: [It certainly was not an easy life] Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the b.o.  Hence the practice of carrying a bouquet at a wedding. Baths equaled a big tub filled with hot water.  The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children, and last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.  Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”   Houses had thatched roofs.  Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath.  It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the pets .. dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.  Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”     There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. So, they found if they made beds with big posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem.  Hence those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying “dirt poor.”  The wealthy had slate floors which got slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed at the entry way.  Hence, a “thresh hold.”     STRESS OUT BOOK Show Stress Who's the Boss   They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle hung over the fire.  Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.  They mostly ate vegetables and didn’t get much meat.  They would eat the stew for dinner leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.  Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been in there for a month.  Hence the rhyme: “peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.   Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that happened When company came over, they would bring out some bacon and hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man “could really bring home the bacon.”  They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”    Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food. This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes............for 400  years.          Most people didn’t have pewter plates, but had trenchers - a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Trencher were never washed and a lot of times worms got into the wood.  After eating off wormy trenchers, they would get “trench mouth.” Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”    Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.  Hence the custom of holding a “wake.” England is old and small and they ran out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a house and reuse the grave. In reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell.   Hence on the “graveyard shift” they would know that someone was “saved by the bell” or he was a “dead ringer.” more fun silly....     Communication  is so important...   A  magazine recently ran a 'Dilbert Quotes' contest. They were looking for  people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. These  were voted the top ten quotes in corporate America:  'As of  tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using  individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.' (This was the winning quote  from Fred Dales, Microsoft Corp. In RedmondWA) 'What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter..' (Lykes  Lines Shipping) 'E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business.' (Accounting manager, Electric Boat  Company) 'This  project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it.' (Advertising/Marketing manager,  United Parcel Service) 'Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule .' (Plant Manager, Delco  Corporation) 'No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it  for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them.' (R&D supervisor, Minnesota  Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)  Quote  from the Boss: 'Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.' (Marketing  executive, Citrix Corporation)  My sister  passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday.  When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, 'That would be better for me.' (Shipping  executive, FTD Florists) 'We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.'  (Switching  supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)  more fun silly....