Last week, a couple of Big 4 employees wanted to share dual love for their firms and All Hallows' Eve. They expressed this by virtue of the age-old tradition of carving jack-o-lanterns. The two offerings were for PwC and Ernst & Young and each featured the firms' respective logos. Despite the enthusiasm from Bob Moritz, the general feeling is that the honest efforts were a little short on creativity. This should come as no surprise since we're dealing with dominantly left-brained people, who save their creativity for exploiting loopholes in accounting and tax rules.
But as the big day approaches, the early examples have no doubt inspired more Big 4 jack-o-lanterns and the most recent one that found its way into our inbox suggests that when mild mannered Ernst & Young employees are walking the streets, they are ready to jump into a phone booth at a moment's notice:
Since many of you are hunkered down today and tomorrow, this is the perfect opportunity to create an elaborately designed jack-o-lantern to lift everyone's spirits for a return to work on Wednesday.
This morning we learned from a couple of sources that the big guy will be calling it a career officially on June 30, 2013 and the firm will announce a new CEO-elect at some point in early 2012.
Here’s JT’s message to the troops:
I have written to all our partners to let them know about my plans to retire from Ernst & Young on 30 June 2013.
Every year, our Global Executive (GE) considers the priorities and initiatives we feel Ernst & Young should focus on in the upcoming year, and these priorities are then approved by our Global Advisory Council (GAC), the top governance body of Ernst & Young.
Periodically, we also take a longer look at our strategy and vision, and involve the GAC in this as well. In July, we informed our partners that we were beginning such a long-term strategic review. The GE and I believe that our new strategy and leadership-succession plans are inextricably linked, and we agreed that June 2013 would be the right time for me to retire.
This is a normal process and the timing has worked out perfectly. I will be 58 years old, which is the normal early retirement age for many of our partners. By then, we will be implementing our new strategy and it’s right that a new leader should steer this implementation.
We are starting a robust process to identify the man or woman who will succeed me, in accordance with our regulations. We intend to identify a new Chairman and CEO elect during the first part of 2012. What I feel very good about is that we’re the type of organization that continually develops large numbers of great leaders, so I see many men and women who could lead Ernst & Young successfully into the future.
This is not a retirement letter or speech to you all, as there is much to do before June 2013. However, I wanted to be very open with you about our plans. Thank you for your continued support as we continue both our strategy and succession-planning process.
James S. Turley
Chairman and CEO
UPDATE: Ernst & Young provided us with the following statement:
In a communication to all Ernst & Young partners worldwide on 10 November 2011, James S. Turley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ernst & Young confirmed that he will retire as planned, aged 58, on 30 June 2013. The succession process to decide a new Chairman and CEO-elect is now underway and will conclude in early 2012, no later than April.
So after riding out Lehman, handing out a lot of trophies, and inspiring the greatest lyric in the history of Big 4 employee produced videos, (I’m sure there are other accomplishments too) Jimbo will ride off into the Black and Yellow sunset. This seems like an appropriate tribute:
Since many of you are hunkered down today and tomorrow, this is the perfect opportunity to create an elaborately designed jack-o-lantern to lift everyone's spirits for a return to work on Wednesday. 
