Word: downbeats
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...those Frenchmen whose notion of a seasonal good read is not met by Laine's downbeat romance, there are the 1,999 other award-winning works to choose from. There are no fewer than 275 prizes for poetry-or roughly one prize for every French poet, according to a cynical Paris critic. There are prizes for the best novels about soccer, vacations, volcanoes and happy old age. The Grand Prix Litteraire des Vins du Périgord de la Région de Bergerac goes to the best literary celebration of the glories of Perigord wine. First prize: half...
Weldon turns this downbeat visit into a romp. Whenever self-pity threatens the characters, another flashback washes it away. If these juxtapositions of past and present sometimes seem too easily ironic, the novel's breathless pace discourages dawdling over flaws. Its humor is wicked, in the manner of Waugh, whose comedy was also of matters as well as manners. The characters' resiliency is not less heroic for taking wacky forms. As Weldon proved in Down Among the Women (1973), she loves her sex because, not in spite of itself. ∙Paul Gray
...week was that real output of goods and services in the first quarter fell at an annual rate of 5.8%. If output goes down again in the current quarter, many politicians surely will be talking about a second Nixon recession-and an inflationary one at that. There were other downbeat indicators: industrial production in March fell for the fourth straight month, and is now 2.8% below its November peak; housing starts last month were 36% below a year earlier. The declines did little to break the grip of inflation. Consumer prices in March shot up at a compound annual rate...
Despite the disappointment of closing out the dual-meet season on a downbeat, the loss to Yale is not the end of the world for Harvard. The Crimson still maintains a share of the Ivy crown. However, instead of sitting alone at the top, Harvard must make room for Columbia and Cornell on the Ivy throne...
...retirement dismissals, company closings or mergers, the collapse of pension funds because of mismanagement. Correspondent Edwin Newman, who was co-author of the script with NBC Producer David Schmerler, noted near the end of the hour-long broadcast that "there are many good" pension plans. But his conclusion was downbeat: "The situation, as we've seen it, is deplorable...