It all sounded bad, but familiar as an old, scratchy record. He had heard it all before, in almost the same words, back in `57 and `58. So why push the panic button? Mark could be wrong. He couldn`t know, for certain, that the balloon was going up. Unless he knew something fresh, something that had not appeared in the newspapers, or been broadcast.

    This paragraph stuck out to me for one reason, and one reason only. It shows me how redundant the world is. Hearing the same old thing everyday, like 'the gas prices are through the roof,' or 'the global economy is in the crapper.' It gets old, real fast. Why can`t we find a better, more interesting subject to talk about? Something a little more upbeat, like how the progress of the war is good. That`s something I would like to wake up to.