The Way We Live Now: Anesthetizing ourselves with cute trends. Mancession? Let's talk about it! Recession sex? A trend for the ages! Cooking school food from scratch? It must have some significance! Just don't mention our hopeless, soul-sucking economic demise.

We've all heard of the Mancession. It has to do with men, and the recession (this one). But what explains this handily named trend? Actual economists are working on the question, and coming up with theories! But really, who cares?

Have you heard the one about the recession baby boom? Yea, we've heard them all, believe me. Nothing to do during a recession but fuck! No condom money, so there's a baby boom! Turns out that that may be a myth based on faulty statistical interpretations. So what?

At one middle school in Queens, they cook the school lunches from scratch. How does that work? In this economic climate? Is this the secret to saving money and keeping our kids healthy at the same time? Maybe, who knows?

Oh, the contrarians: British Airways is launching more premium business flights. Now? In the midst of a recession? Is this some sort of negative indicator? Business is back? A tipoff that multinational M&A is booming again? Could be, or not.

254,000 private sector job losses in September. Put that trend in your pipe and smoke it.