A reminder came the next day, when headlines reported that a teenager at Big Beach, on the south side of the island, had survived a shallow-water attack.

The headline reported the escape from prison of Boss Tweed.

The buying then accelerated when headlines reported that new-home sales had fallen 9.6 percent.

If the day's jubilant headlines reported the present, some of the advertisements suggested the future.

And on Oct. 20, 1987, a two-column headline reported the previous day's stock market crash.

Another headline reported that Ariel Sharon had named a "war crimes suspect" as Israel's new defense minister.

"Military toll tops 1,000," The Boston Globe's headline reported last time.

An article and its headline on Sunday about the previous day's Washington march protesting Supreme Court limits on affirmative action reported that 5,000 people had taken part.

Even when headlines report bad news about unemployment rates and ballooning inflation, the poorest people in developed economies are doing better than most of their ancestors did.

In other words, and as a recent headline in this newspaper reported, the "Social Whirl May Help Keep the Mind Dancing."