At the delightful (and crowded!) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival yesterday in San Francisco, the great wit Loudon Wainwright III concluded with a new song, as yet unrecorded, about the tough times we're in.
First he joked that this was part of "The New Optimism," which he is able to offer because he has been a figure of famous pessimism throughout his career, so when he sees a silver lining to a dark cloud, he has credibility to talk about it. Then he plunged into the song, which has a nice ironic lilt to it, and the chorus:
It's not the end of the world -- just the middle of the night.
Roll it around in your mouth. Try it out on a friend. Could be a slogan for the naughts...
Here's Loudon:
