I had to laugh at the J. Press anecdote at the end. I actually remember when Casual Fridays came in. It basically meant that sales/marketing/business types didn't need to wear jackets and ties (if not suits) on Friday any longer. People in engineering tended not to wear ties and when "official" casual Friday's came in, the response was to dress down another notch--including dressing down further on Fridays--to the point where the CEO made it known that the dressing down had gone a bit too far.

It was around the same time that IBMers switched from suits to the now ubiquitous polo shirts at trade shows. Cue great sigh of relief from booth staffers at the myriad of other companies who could now follow suit [pun not intended].