Word: pessimistic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...them Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (N.P.N.), could generate a following wide enough to qualify their presidential candidates. The freewheeling and occasionally violent campaign that followed persuaded some Nigerians that the experiment with democracy was premature. Said a professor: "There are two kinds of people here, the pessimist who says civilian rule will fall apart before it begins in October, and the optimist who says that it will fall apart six months later...
...pessimist's short catechism?"It will get worse, it will get worse, it will get worse"?applies to tennis elbow, OPEC exactions, the seven ages of man, Skylab, the Middle East, airline food, the New Conservatism, college tuition, smog and the length and lack of substance of presidential campaigns. It does not apply to 17-year locusts?they come and they go?or, it is startling to realize, to movies. Just now, for instance, a trend is flowering unexpectedly and delightfully: for some reason that no one even pretends to be able to explain, an unusual number of extremely...
...profound dilemmas of the heart. In Antoine's restlessness the director sees love's unpredictability, its evanescence, its incompatibility with the rude dailiness of life. Truffaut believes true romance can last only as long as a fleeting, stolen kiss, but, even so, he is not a weary pessimist. Each time Antoine (the ever boyish Jean-Pierre Leaud) picks himself up off the floor for another doomed fling, it is a victory of the spirit. The best Doinel movies, The 400 Blows and Stolen Kisses (1968), are among the most hilarious and disturbing film comedies ever to chart...
...eminent goldbug, a professional pessimist, Deak understands the psychology of people who have lost faith in mere money and paper shares. Critics, including many stockbrokers, say that Deak has a great 17th century mind, that his views would make Marie Antoinette look like Bella. Abzug. But his opinions are important, since so many nervous people share them...
...formidable. Says William McChesney Martin, a revered former Fed chairman: "He is like a golfer who has made four birdies in a row, but there are some more holes to play. He has a tough job ahead." Fortunately, he is tackling it in a spirit of optimism. A pessimist would be whipped before he began...