Word: mood
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...usual, the President's popularity seems to mirror the national mood, which has been extraordinarily buoyant since the beginning of 1984. When asked how they feel "things are going in the country," 69% answered "very well" or "fairly well." That is down only slightly from the 74% who felt the same way in the rosy aftermath of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Since Yankelovich began asking this question more than ten years ago, the figure has ranged from just above 20% (early in President Ford's term and during the Iran hostage crisis) to the current highs. The optimism found...
While the young, the wealthy and the Republican tended to be the most sanguine about the state of the nation, a majority of all demographic groups shared the upbeat mood. Even 53% of those making less than $ 10,000 agreed that things are going very or fairly well. The sunny outlook seems to reflect the current health of the economy: the lowest level of optimism during Reagan's term, 35%, came at the end of the last recession, in December...
Public opinion on an array of specific social issues has not changed noticeably in recent years: 55% oppose making abortion illegal; 60% favor mandatory handgun registration; 75% are for the wider use of the death penalty; 69% favor a constitutional amendment permitting prayer in the classroom. The general mood of the nation may have grown more conservative in the '80s but, evidently, activists on neither the right nor the left have had much success in altering American thought on these crucial matters of our time. --By Jacob V. Lamar...
...that the athletes and the rest of us remain attentive. There were absentees at Baton Rouge among the top U.S. competitors, and crowds were lighter than festival boosters had expected. But among those who came to this circus of 30-odd summer sports and three winter skating events, the mood seemed light and untroubled. For athletes the meet was important but not career-breaking. For spectators both the nationalistic baying and the oppressive security of the Olympics were absent. A visitor could park and buy a ticket at the door to almost any competition site and as often...
...propitiate the gods as best they can. In Nitya, a couple remember a solemn vow to shave their two-year-old son's head and offer his hair as tribute if he recovers from whooping cough and convulsions. Unfortunately, the healthy young man is now 20 and in no mood to cooperate: "You had no business to pawn my scalp without consulting me." The hero of All Avoidable Talk is a clerk who learns from his astrologer that a period of bad luck will end if he can avoid saying anything that might give offense to anybody for one more...