10 Ways to Play the Fool at Work

(NEWSER) - No one knows quite how today's holiday got its start, but it may have its roots in the resistance of French "fools" to the Gregorian calendar, which shifted New Year's from April 1 to Jan. 1. Of course, that explanation could be a hoax, notes the Huffington Post, which runs down the best April Fools' pranks:

• After the BBC reported on the anticipated Swiss spaghetti crop in 1957, viewers phoned in for instructions on how to grow their own pasta trees.

10 indicators the holiday-week fun has passed you by

(NEWSER) - The office is oddly quiet, your favorite parking spot is always free and your boss isn't lurking in the usual matter. What's going on? Here, the Boston Globe's list of 10 signs that you've been abandoned.

1. You've rearranged your manager's office furniture and made a chalk outline of a body—and no one notices.
2. Your daydreams are your co-workers' realities.
3. Your skin tone starts to resemble Steve Buscemi's.
4. When you blast Jay-Z, no one tells you to turn it down.
5. Parking is a breeze.

It helps them solve creative problems, study suggests

(NEWSER) - Hiring a new manager? Give Jerry Seinfeld a call. Sarcasm prompts employees to speed through tasks that require creative problem-solving, Israeli research suggests. Simple fury at your staff can also get them working quickly, but it’s only effective for more straightforward tasks. “The incongruent information inherent in sarcasm appears to stimulate complex thinking and to attenuate the otherwise negative effects of anger,” says a researcher, adding that the sarcastic expression of anger should include "some irony and humor." In one study, researchers played subjects one of three messages supposedly left on a customer service voicemail. More»

First and most importantly, be aware of the date

(NEWSER) - Welcome to April 1, “the day when every office jokester and petty prankster thinks up some gags at your expense that they think will be hilarious,” writes Brian Moylan on Gawker . “Well, not this year, jackass.” Moylan offers a foolproof five-step plan to make yourself, well, foolproof:

1. Know the date: You’re most likely to fall for an April Fools Day prank when you don’t realize it’s April Fools Day. But “not this time around. If you're reading this, you have been informed. Use that to your advantage.”

Blogger, tech site both manage to punk the paper

(NEWSER) - The New York Times got punked—twice!—on April Fools’ Day, and the World Wide Web is having quite a laugh about it. First, the paper fell for a New York personal injury attorney who claimed to have been appointed “official White House law blogger,” going so far as to write it up (and then later retract it) in a City Room post, Gawker notes. More»