[via John Gruber]

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. [The] happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.

[...]

As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it’s both a reflection of the country’s cultural narcissism — and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness — and a backlash against corporate America and its “Dilbert”-like work environment.

If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result.

Marriage may be bourgeois, but it’s also the greenest of all social structures.

Bourgeois – definition of Bourgeois by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia (with audio pronunciation):

bourgeois [boor-zhwah] Often disparaging

Adjective
1. characteristic of or comprising the middle class
2. conservative or materialistic in outlook
3. (in Marxist thought) dominated by capitalism

Noun
pl -geois
a member of the middle class, esp. one regarded as being conservative and materialistic [Old French borjois citizen]

We can’t know the long-term value of an image when we first create it – but we can record its provenance for those that come after us.

provenance – definition of provenance by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia (with audio pronunciation):
1. Place of origin; derivation.
2. a. The history of the ownership of an object, especially when documented or authenticated. Used of artworks, antiques, and books.
2. b. The records or documents authenticating such an object or the history of its ownership.

In other words, though Microsoft may not be able to dislodge its own legacy product from the PC desktop throne, it can at least point to this Pyrrhic victory against its archenemy the FOSS community as a bright spot in an otherwise dismal forecast.

Pyrrhic victory – definition of Pyrrhic victory by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia (with audio pronunciation):

1. A victory that is offset by staggering losses.
2. A victory in which the victor’s losses are as great as those of the defeated [after Pyrrhus, who defeated the Romans in 279 bc but suffered heavy losses] .

‘So we do nothing?’ Vittoria felt compunction challenging a man in such frail health, but the director was so far out of line she didn’t even know him anymore.

compunction – definition and meaning of compunction by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia (with audio pronunciation):
1. A strong uneasiness caused by a sense of guilt.
2. A sting of conscience or a pang of doubt aroused by wrongdoing or the prospect of wrongdoing.