Cover Story Excerpt:
The 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... Read the full story.