sad sack

I am sick and tired of the same old sad sack song crying to us that we need to give up more of "our" money.

In the introduction to this canny portrait of a sad sack of a man trying to maintain a scrap of human dignity against tremendous odds, Lakhous notes: "Sotte le dittature i popoli tirano fuori il peggio del peggio di loro stessi, inventando modi patologici di sopravivenza come l'autocensura, l'autorepressione, l'autohumiliazione" (Under a dictatorship people draw the very worst out of themselves, they invent pathological survival mechanisms like self-censorship, self-repression, and self-humiliation).

He's a sad sack who, although the asteroid looms closer, continues to go to the gym and floss his teeth.

YEARS ago Britain was faced with the dreaded prospect of the 'Friday car' - a sad sack of a vehicle that was produced by jaded workers who would throw anything together before heading home for beer and blessed relief from the mindless monotony of the production line.

Todd Carty plays the sad sack role of Patsy just as it should be.

*Skeletons (15) A true British original, two sad sack 'ghostbusters' exorcise the skeletons in their clients' closets but get in deep emotional waters when asked to find a missing husband.

That show found its muse in producer Karl Pilkington, a laconic sad sack who quickly became the centerpiece of the show.

Other legends of the game who came to prominence during the year include Vince Lombardi a coach for the Giants who implemented his win-at-all-costs philosophy to turn the heretofore sad sack Green Bay Packers into a proud dynasty.

Younger readers may find it boring; older readers may find it depressing, or wonder why the main character is such a sad sack. Since Daniel isn't a Type A personality--his hobbies are sleeping and watching TV--he doesn't exactly hit the ground running.

(I pulled the lever for the sad sack Walter Mondale, for reasons as obscure to me now as his "Norwegian charisma" was then to the American voting public.)

THE November story "Remembering Sad Sack," was very well done, though I have to admit that before reading the article I had never heard of Sad Sack.

They recruit high school sad sack Kate (Brittany Snow) who has apparently never been on a date.

And given that the soulful monologue in "Sideways" comes from the depressed Miles, who probably would be considered in real life a "problem drinker," a sad sack with none of the aspirational characteristics marketers remind us are important in selling the "wine life-style," it seems there's a bit of cognitive dissonance in the California air.

And now, in Kennedy's latest novel, Paradise, just out from Knopf, we meet thirty-six-year-old sad sack Hannah Luckraft, who sells cardboard for a living and whose spirit--indeed, whose life--is being steadily eroded by her insatiable thirst for alcohol.