Looking for that perfect gift for the kid who has everything? How about fomenting a lifelong fear of clowns? For a price, Swiss actor Dominic Deville will don his “evil birthday clown” mask — complete with fangs and a mouth dripping blood — and terrorize that lucky boy or girl for a week, before eventually confronting the child and smashing a cake into his/her face.

The Austrian Times reports Deville’s service also includes harassing calls, texts, and phone messages, letting the target know “their time is coming.” The actor insists, “It’s all in fun and if at any point the kids get scared or their parents are concerned we stop right there. But most kids absolutely love being scared senseless.”

Lucky for billions of kids around the world, Deville’s Evil Clown service is only operating in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Wedding season will soon be in full bloom and with it, rapidly depleted back accounts, not just for the people paying for the events but also those invited to them.

But on the bright side, as a survey by American Express Spending and Saving Tracker discovered, guests will be spending quite a bit less on average this year than in 2011.

The price tag for gifts, travel, clothing and wedding preparations will amount to about $339 — which sounds steep, but really isn’t given that the cost this time last year was a whopping $490.

In 2012, gifts alone for close family members averaged $196, but that’s now down to $166. The amount spent for newlyweds considered close friends drops to $105, while co-workers who get married are only worth $56 on average per gift from guests.

About four in ten guests say they determine what to spend based on their relationship to the couple, while a third say their personal budgets will dictate how much the gift will cost.

Overall, guests are more inclined to purchase gifts from a registry — probably because it requires less thought — even as couples would really prefer cash instead.

As far as what they regard as the best part of the wedding, just over 60 percent of the 1,500 adults surveyed say food is what they look forward to the most, with the venue, entertainment and wedding cake following the meal in importance.

Guests also say that the happy couple could help themselves financially by eliminating things like “save the dates,” transportation for the wedding party or guests and party favors.

Sure and begorra, does anybody know what St. Patrick’s Day is all about?

With everyone’s favorite Irish holiday coming up Saturday, March 17, a Harris Poll commissioned by Irish whiskey maker Tullamore Dew sought to find out if Americans had any clue just why everybody celebrates the day, no matter what the ethnicity.

Shocking, 51 percent of respondents had no idea that St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland, a distinction he’s held since the seventh century.

The lack of knowledge about St. Patrick goes way beyond that:

• Only one in four knew that he was actually born in a part of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire.
• Just over a third said March 17 is St. Patrick’s birthday when it’s actually the day he died.
• Twenty-five percent believe the folktale that St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland when the geological evidence says there weren’t any snakes living there during his day.

The Harris Poll of 2,143 U.S. adults was conducted last January.

In a perfect world, you’d do a little detective work, get an idea of who the owner is, call them up and arrange to have the cellphone returned.  Honesty is the best policy, after all.

But face it, this ain’t a perfect world, as computer security firm Symantec discovered after planting 50 phones in various spots where people would easily come across them in New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ottawa.

Turns out that of the phones that were found by strangers, only half of the finders made an effort to contact the “owner” even though the name was clearly visible on the contact file.

And if it that wasn’t bad enough, Symantec learned through logging software it loaded into the cellphones that most of the finders — 89 percent — couldn’t help themselves from looking at personal information that included files named online banking and saved passwords:

• 43 percent checked the banking app.
• 57 percent opened the saved passwords.
• 60 percent snooped at personal emails.
• 72 percent couldn’t resist looking at the file marked “private photos.”

I don’t have worry about losing my cell phone because I’m smrt and have a setup like this…

What would you do?  Would you return a cell phone if you found one?

  A new Valentine’s Day survey commissioned by CareerBuilder.com finds 31 percent of employees say their office romance led to marriage.  The survey also found 38 percent of workers admitting they have dated a co-worker at least once over the course of their career.  Seventeen percent of those polled admitted dating co-workers at least twice.

Additional findings from the annual CareerBuilder Valentine’s Day survey:

– 28 percent of workers who dated a co-worker said they have dated someone above them in the company hierarchy, and 18 percent admitted to dating their boss.  Women were more likely than men to date someone above their pay grade, 35 percent to 23 percent.

– Hospitality is the leading industry when it comes to office romances, with 47 percent of employees admitting they dated a co-worker.  The financial services sector was next at 45 percent, followed by Transportation & Utilities, Information Technology and the healthcare industry.

– 26 percent reported that what someone does for a living influences whether they would date that person.  Five percent of workers revealed someone ended a relationship with them because either their job required too many hours at the office, they didn’t make enough money or the person didn’t like their line of work.

– 19 percent of respondents reported that they are more attracted to people who have a similar job. 

– Social settings outside of work were cited most often when it came to workers making a love connection.

The survey of 7,780 U.S. workers was conducted by Harris Interactive.

One afternoon a lawyer was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road-side eating grass. Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and got out to investigate. He asked one man, “Why are you eating grass?”

“We don’t have any money for food,” the poor man replied. “We have to eat grass.”

“Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I’ll feed you,” the lawyer said.

“But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree.”

“Bring them along,” the lawyer replied. Turning to the other poor man he stated, “You may come with us, also.”

The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, “But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!”

“Bring them all as well,” the lawyer answered.

They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine. Once under way, one of the poor fellows turned to the lawyer and said, “Sir, you are too kind.” “Thank you for taking all of us with you .

The lawyer replied, “Glad to do it. “You’ll really love my place. “The grass is almost a foot high.”

Come on now… you really didn’t think there was such a thing as a heartwarming Lawyer story…did you?

Retail analysts say shoppers have set new records for spending this holiday season, but a new survey indicates almost half of all U.S. gift buyers have not yet begun to shop.  A survey by PriceGrabber finds 41 percent of consumers plan to shop between December 21 and December 24 for holiday gifts.

When those shoppers were asked why they wait until the last minute to buy gifts, 43 percent responded that they believe the best discounts can be found in the final days before Christmas.  Another 43 percent of respondents said they were too busy to get their shopping done any earlier.  Twenty-six percent of those polled blamed their gift-buying delay on procrastination, while 22 percent said they shop at the last minute because it’s fun.  Another ten percent of survey respondents said they wait for a year-end bonus to begin shopping.

Most people complete their Christmas shopping before Christmas Day, but the PriceGrabber survey found 11 percent of men and eight percent of women admitting that they wait until January to buy holiday gifts.  The number one reason given for waiting until 2012 to buy gifts for Christmas 2011: better sale prices.  Sixty-eight percent of January Christmas shoppers cite that reason.  Another 27 percent say they wait until January to do their holiday shopping because they can do it with gift money they received in December.  Twenty-four percent said they simply prefer shopping in January, while 11 percent said they wait until the new year to use year-end bonuses from their jobs.

The PriceGrabber survey included responses from 13,472 shopping consumers.

I’m definitely one of those last minute shoppers and often get my loved ones awesome gifts like this:

Everyone knows it’s nicer to give than to receive, but a new survey by CareerBuider.com reveals some employees have given gifts to co-workers that no one had on their wish list.

CareerBuilder asked employees to recall the most memorable gifts received from co-workers.  Here are the highlights…or lowlights:

• a zombie figurine
• a keychain that shouts expletives
• bacon of the month club
• a ceramic snake
• a clock that meows three times on the hour
• a hand-painted landscape on a toilet seat
• a glass high-heel shoe filled with dish soap
• mustache scissors
• a whip
• a 12-pack of cola

The survey also finds that companies are planning to throw more holiday parties and hand out more gifts and bonuses than last year.

– 40 percent of employers plan to give their employees holiday bonuses this year, up from 33 percent in 2010.  Among the bonus givers, 73 percent are planning to give the same amount as last year while 14 percent plan to award a bigger bonus.  Thirteen percent plan to provide a smaller bonus.

– Fifty-eight percent of companies are planning a holiday party for their employees this year, up from 52 percent in 2010.  Thirty-six percent of workers say they plan to attend their office holiday party this year.

– Thirty-percent of employers plan to give holiday gifts to employees, up from 29 percent in 2010. And the gift giving isn’t just corporate.  The CareerBuilder survey finds 22 percent of employees planning to buy holiday gifts for co-workers this year, with the same amount planning to buy their boss something. Of those exchanging gifts at the office, 79 percent say they plan to spend $25 or less for each holiday gift they buy, while 38 percent plan to spend $10 or less.  Twelve percent plan to spend less than five bucks. 

The CareerBuilder.com survey involved 2,696 hiring managers and 4,086 full-time workers.

To all my co-workers reading this post, this is what I want for Christmas this year:

The pregnancy and parenting website BabyCenter has released its lists of the top baby names of 2011, based on information provided by mothers registered to the global site. For the seventh year in a row, Aiden tops the boys’ list. Sophia is the number-one girls’ name for the second consecutive year.

Here are the lists of the top boys’ names and the top girls’ names, I’m a little upset there’s no Trent on the list… would make a lovely girls name:

Boys
Aiden
Jackson
Mason
Liam 
Jacob
Jayden
Ethan
Noah

Girls
Sophia
Emma
Isabella
Olivia
Ava
Lily
Chloe
Madison

If you thought women spent more time than men picking the right outfit to wear, you’re wrong.  A new survey commissioned by the British hotel chain Travelodge finds men spend on average 13 minutes choosing the right outfit, compared to 10 minutes for women.

The survey also finds that men spend 18 minutes on their shaving regime, compared to 14 minutes for women despite them having to trim legs, armpits and bikini line.

Additional findings:

• On an average morning, men spend 23 minutes in the shower, compared to 22 minutes for women.
• Men spend ten minutes — one minute longer than women — on cleansing, toning and moisturizing.
• On average, men spend 81 minutes a day on personal grooming, including cleansing, toning and moisturizing, shaving, styling hair and choosing clothes.  Women have their beauty regime down to a science and get hair, clothes and makeup done in just 75 minutes