We've got an unpopular President in the White House, trouble with Iran and economists raising the specter of stagflation. Russia has invaded a neighboring country. The Yankees couldn't make the playoffs. Breaker 1-9: Was that a purple Gremlin that just rolled by?

...this feels more like a '70s flashback. It's not just that Zac Efron's hair is almost as shaggy as Shaun Cassidy's or that jeans are once again worn tight enough to read Braille through the back pocket. It's the whole feckless, zipless, helpless vibe that has settled across the land, from the factories of Motor City to the gas lines of Charlotte, from the boardrooms of New York to the subdivisions of California. What's that word again? Oh, yes: malaise.

All we need now is a meltdown, and the symmetry is complete!

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In other news, I got an e-mail from a company I interviewed with last week. Presumably they wouldn't give me a heads-up that they weren't going to offer me a job. I hope. Scary time to be unemployed...