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Pony In Here Somewhere

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  Thursday, 18 Oct 2012 | 3:04 PM ET

Seasonal Odd Jobs: From Elves to Vampires

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Seasonal employment evokes images of sales clerks and package-delivery drivers. But what you might not realize is there's also demand for everything from elves to vampires.

"There is a huge demand for vampires right now!" said Father Sebastiaan van Houten, a professional fang maker who also throws vampire balls several times a year.

»Read more
  Thursday, 15 Nov 2012 | 1:35 PM ET

Tell the Truth: You Still Wanna Be an Astronaut!

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Dieter Spears | Vetta | Getty Images

Workers confessed to professional-networking site LinkedIn what they always wanted to be when they grew up.

Of course, astronaut is on the list.

Here were the Top 5 dream jobs among the men, according to the survey from LinkedIn :

»Read more
  Monday, 3 Dec 2012 | 3:51 PM ET

Viva l'Apocalypse! Crack Open the End-of-the-World Wine

Posted By:
Patrick Aventurier | Getty Images
The village of Bugarach, which some are claiming will be the only surviving settlement following a devastating apocalypse in December 2012.

Did you know there are only 18 shopping days left to the Apocalypse? Yeah, time to get all those last minute end-of-the-world supplies and figure out what bunker you're going to hide out in!

A lot of ideas have been kicked around from this guy's house, a luxed-out underground missile silo, to a porn bunker for the apocalypse.

Well, while you were packing your Apocalypse Go Kit, the French village of Bugarach was cracking open the End of the World wine. (Read More: Tips for the Apocalypse)

»Read more
  Friday, 2 Nov 2012 | 4:25 PM ET

A Bidding Frenzy...for This Guy's Last Name?!

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Photo by Laura Evans Photography

Jason Sadler is the kind of guy who will sell you the shirt off his back.

No, really — that's what he does for a living. He started a business, mid-recession no less, as a professional T-shirt wearer (www.iwearyourshirt.com). Companies pay him to wear a T-shirt with their logo on it, then talk about it on Facebook, Twitter and in YouTube videos. The business was so successful, he turned it into a mini T-shirt wearing empire – he even had his dog wearing T-shirts! — watching his revenue double in each of the first few years.

Well now, he's come up with another unexpected revenue stream — his last name.

»Read more
  Wednesday, 31 Oct 2012 | 2:52 PM ET

Halloween Canceled? Get Ready for a Pint-Sized Riot

Constance Bannister | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Ghosts, goblins and Freddy Krueger masks are scary but you know what's even scarier to most kids? Halloween being canceled due to Hurricane Sandy.

Eeeeeek!

"Wait … you can't cancel a holiday!" one poster wrote on Twitter#halloweencancelled.

"Sandy basically egged our house and smashed our pumpkins!" another wrote at #halloweenpostponed.

»Read more
  Thursday, 25 Oct 2012 | 2:22 PM ET

Scary Indicator II: Who's Ahead Now—Obama or Romney?

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Source: Spirithalloween.com

It's less than two weeks to the election and with three presidential debates and a VP throwdown behind us, it's time to check in with our scary indicator to see who's ahead — Halloween masks.

Both Spirit Halloween and BuyCostumes.com say they have correctly predicted the winner of the past few presidential elections using sales of the candidates' masks for Halloween as a gauge.

When we last checked in at the end of September, both stores had Obama-Biden ahead of Romney-Ryan by 64 percent to 36 percent.

»Read more
  Tuesday, 16 Oct 2012 | 2:50 PM ET

Hssssss! Where Wall Street Vampires Get Their Fangs

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Source: Maja for Fathersebastiaan.com
This vampire model, Matea, shows off her classic fangs made by Father Sebastiaan in Croatia.

Matt Taibbi famously called Goldman Sachs a "vampire squid" in Rolling Stone. But some Wall Street traders and executives actually have fangs and many get them made from this guy.

Father Sebastiaan van Houten, who is neither a priest nor a dentist, is a professional fangsmith — and, he works year-round, not just at Halloween.

He got bit by the vampire bug at age 9 after reading Anne Rice's vampire novels. You could say he has dentistry in his blood — both his aunt and grandfather were dentists. So, when his grandfather passed away, he tinkered with the dental tools to make himself a pair of fangs and later served as an apprentice to another dentist.

»Read more
  Friday, 12 Oct 2012 | 3:36 PM ET

Validated! Watching Cute Cat Videos Boosts Productivity

Posted By:
scottdw | Youtube
Yo, can your dog do this?!

If you loved "Surprised Kitty" or "Sneezing Baby Panda" on YouTube but quickly opened another Internet browser at work so it didn't look like you were slacking, you can come out of the closet, cute animal lovers.

Yes, you can has cheezburger.

A new study out of Japan (of course. Hello, kitty.) shows that looking at cute animal pictures can actually improve a person's productivity at work.

»Read more
  Friday, 12 Oct 2012 | 10:10 AM ET

The Most Outrageous Excuses for Calling In Sick

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Source: Paramount Pictures
What do you do on a fake sick day? You shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now (come on, baby) ... Twist and shout ...

In grade school, they called it "playing hooky." As adults, it's referred to as "taking a mental health day." But any way you slice it, there are fibbers among us who call in sick when they're not — three out of 10 to be exact.

I knew it! You weren't really sick, were you?!

Thirty percent of workers admitted to calling in sick in the past year when they were not actually sick, according to a new survey from job site CareerBuilder.com.

»Read more
  Monday, 8 Oct 2012 | 4:02 PM ET

Napping at Your Desk — Now Made Easier!

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Napping has been endorsed by everyone from NASA to the NBA. Studies have shown it can boost your brainpower, improve performance, help with weight loss and even enhance your libido!

But as compelling as all that is who has time for a nap?

Enter the Ostrich Pillow , an invention out of a Madrid architecture and design studio that basically allows a human to do the equivalent of an ostrich putting their head in the sand in order to create a quiet space anywhere to nap from the office to an airport.

The product, which has been called everything from super cool (The next Web ) to the most ridiculous idea ever to get funded on Kickstarter (BusinessInsider.com ) was born from the fact that its creators themselves worked long hours, had peaks and troughs in productivity and creativity and learned that a nap could make a huge difference.

The product makes you laugh the minute you see it (hence the ridiculous description) and makes whoever is wearing it look like a hammerhead shark. The pillow slips over the nappers head, with a breathing hole around the face and two holes in the sides above the head to put your hands which makes sense when youre lying face down on the desk not so much when youre sitting upright at the airport.

» Read More

About Pony Blog

The news can get a little heavy sometimes, with debt crises, vicious markets and crappy earnings reports. So, we dispatched our crack reporters, Cindy Perman and Jane Wells, to find some levity amid all this seriousness. May we offer you a Keynesian cocktail with a side of bacon? Why a Pony? To be clear, there were no ponies harmed in the making of this blog. The blog’s name, “There Must Be a Pony In Here Somewhere,” comes from an old joke, a favorite of Ronald Reagan’s, that essentially means, with a pile of you-know-what this big, there MUST be a pony — a bright side — in here somewhere!

Contact Pony Blog

  • Cindy Perman is a writer at CNBC.com, covering jobs, real estate, retirement and personal finance.

  • Based in Los Angeles, Wells is currently a CNBC business news reporter and also writes CNBC.com's “Funny Business.”

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