The hardcore role-players will wake up one day feeling, like a dead weight on their chest, the strain of endless texting in Renaissance Faire English—yet dutifully go on theeing and thouing all the same.

Have you seen my ballpoint? I need to sign this form, and a felt-tip won't make carbons.

And that the ladies furthermore had a choice assortment of waters to make their faces shine, confections to clarify their skins, lip salves and scarlet cloths for the cheeks, and ointments for various purposes of lustrifying and beautifying the complexion.

Whereas in the 1960s, incomes rose as the economy grew—to use President Kennedy's phrase, “a rising tide lifts all the boats”—this no longer applied in the 1980s.