The 1930s were a miserable time for a socialist.

ECONOMIST: Barbara Castle

Mr. SHURKIN: He was a perfectly miserable son of a gun.

NPR: Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy

One rainy night in Owensboro, Kentucky, the band plays another in a string of miserable shows to a nearly empty house.

FORBES: Behind The Music

Bill Clinton had a miserable transition and it reflected in a very bad first days.

NPR: Clock Ticking On Obama's First 100 Days

They should bite you and then die a slow miserable death, or a quicker one if you're good with your hands.

NPR: Unusual Breed of Mosquitoes Hits Dallas

It was a miserable scorecard in what is supposed to be a recession-proof industry that escaped the credit and liquidity problems plaguing other financial institutions.

FORBES

Adjusted for inflation and tax changes, the rise was a miserable 0.3% and sales taxes may fall a little in fiscal 2002.

ECONOMIST: State budgets

Detroit is a miserable case study of big government run amok, so I enjoyed a moment or two of guilty pleasure as I read this CNBC story about the ongoing decay of the Motor City.

FORBES: 'Atlas Shrugged' Comes To Detroit

Firstly, that as a domestic leader, he is a miserable failure, but that in contrast, he is something of a titanic figure on the European stage, after a magnificent six months in charge of the rotating EU presidency.

ECONOMIST: European politics

But it was a miserable place to stay, its attic full of manic squirrels, its floor a dull smear of ground-in soot and dirt, its walls impregnated with the oily emanations of ten thousand meals.

NEWYORKER: Idols

The vision of Jordan as a miserable sandwich, squeezed between Iraq and America, could come to look more like a Big Mac.

ECONOMIST: Jordan and Iraq

It was a miserable day for Olympic champion Tiki Gelana, who finished 16th after seeing her hopes thwarted by a collision about a third of the way in.

NPR: Kebede Wins London Marathon Amid Tight Security

It controls all but a miserable sliver of Kashmir, and it faces no security threat there that it cannot contain—at a price, but one paid mainly in Kashmiri blood.

ECONOMIST: But without progress on Kashmir, the good news won't last