Word: despondency
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...aren't quite giddy (after the '80s, '90s and '00s, beware all giddiness), but they do sound optimistic about an imminent tide of innovations in information technology, energy and transportation. Recall, please, the national mood in the 1970s: after the 1960s party, we found ourselves in a slough of despond, with an oil crisis, a terrible recession, declining productivity, a kind of Weimarish embrace of cultural decadence, national malaise. And yet at that very dispirited moment, Federal Express, Microsoft and Apple were all founded. Even now Apple and Amazon and Google have been doing better than the rest...
...suddenly got good and won the World Series in 1969. There was another flash in the 1980s, though the 1986 World Series victory seemed more attributable to the rapacious karma of the vanquished Red Sox. Several hopeful seasons followed, but eventually the Mets fell back into their hammock of despond, a team that rarely tested the limits of mediocrity. My love persisted, unquenched; but the allegiance didn't demand much. It is difficult to dash the absence of hope...
...There has been a rowdy, adolescent substratum to the Party of Grownups ever since Ronald Reagan renovated the property, inviting America's blue collars and rednecks to join the white-shoed country clubbers. And the party's current despond seemed to enhance the rowdiness in Ames. It was hard to find a happy Republican. "I don't like the three top guys," Howard Taylor, a community-college teacher from Milo told me, referring to Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain. "They don't have Midwestern values." Nor did Taylor like George W. Bush so much anymore. "I think...
...Lancelot of economics, Alan Greenspan, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II last week. But some top economists worry that the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman has moved too slowly to slay the dragon they hear stirring: deflation. The term describes an economic slough of despond in which capacity exceeds demand, inflation drops below 0%, companies sit on their cash rather than investing it, prices fall and wages retreat. Workers paid low wages in inflationary times find their debt harder to repay if they get a further cut-a terrible prospect in this period of record credit-card bills. Deflation has devastated...
...best way to beat the mood, and the rain, is by getting out of the muddy slough of despond and taking decisive action. Quadlings would be well-advised to invest in hip boots and waders. First-years would be equally well-advised to make the pilgrimage to 29 Garden Street so that they can be properly grateful they don't live there. And if the roaches in Dunster House start lining up two by two, leave town...