Word: dourness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...have a row of portholes running along the side. The clean Modernist lines are usually set off by palm trees, or explosions of magenta and tangerine bougainvillea - a tropical extravagance of color that Gropius and Mies never would have dreamed of in their wintry Weimar. We trust that the dour old minimalists would have approved...
...rich nations to see things differently will require diplomatic skills that often eluded his uncle, a dour and sometimes acerbic figure who clashed publicly with the U.S. over the Balkan wars, the genocide in Rwanda and Washington's unpaid U.N. dues. "My uncle tends to more public display, he tends to be more blunt," Boutros-Ghali says. "[At the IMF] different things are at stake. I will pound my fists in a closed room; there's nothing to be gained from doing it in public...
Optimism, meanwhile, is associated with a happier and longer life. Over the course of a recent eight-year study, University of Pittsburgh researchers found that optimistic women outlived dour ones. Which may be good news for the motivational gurus out there, but what about the rest of us who aren't always so chipper? Are we destined for sickness and failure? Or is it possible to master the principles of positivity the same way we might learn a new hobby or follow a recipe...
Economists and public officials need to be optimistic about the economy. It they are too dour, they just encourage the public to think that they should be replaced. Economists, after all, might be considered a luxury in a down economy. Politicians who predict only hopelessness may be seen as ineffective stewards of their country's finances...
...repeated that phrase, and he seemed barely able to control his joy and confidence as he attacked his peroration: that even in the toughest times, "there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency and a determination that perseveres." This was the chord that had been missing in the first dour month of Obama's presidency - not so much optimism as confidence, the sense that he was not only steering the presidency, but loving the challenge of it. It was the quality that distinguished Franklin Roosevelt's public persona, guided by the motto that F.D.R. had in his office: "Let unconquerable...