Have you had enough of the long lines at the grocery store? Are you sick of chlorine-flavored water? Does the sight of Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco bring tears to your eyes? Is that Katrina cough still nagging at you?

Maybe we do have a lot to be upset, worried, confused or stressed about. Or maybe, as Welsh scientist Dr. Cliff Arnall has calculated, we are simply going through the worst stretch of the calendar year.

Arnall, a seasonal disorders specialist from the University of Cardiff, Wales has developed a formula for calculating the worst day of the year – or, as lay people call it, this past Monday, Jan. 23.

The formula takes into account several variables such as the weather, debt, time elapsed since Christmas, low motivational levels and even the inability to follow through on New Year’s resolutions.

That’s right, New Orleans. We may be down, but at least everyone else is too.

So maybe it’s okay to bitch about what’s ailing you. Just this once, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to complain about what you hate. After all, if everyone else in the world is just as miserable, why not let it all out. As Dr. Phil would say, “Why don’t we all stop lying and start getting real?”

So here’s to you, empty drink machines in the Communications/Music building. When faced with the option of Sprite Aruba Jam or dehydration, The Maroon endorses the latter.

Speaking of sustenance, how are the freshmen supposed to gain the traditional 15 pounds without the Pizza Hut in the C-store? Besides, breadsticks can really get you through the day.

Here’s to the smokers for making the residential quad their ashtray. Maybe Residential Life should just give in and let smokers back on the porches or at least provide some kind of ashcan.

Here’s to the stop signs at the corner of Calhoun and St. Charles. We hope backing traffic on St. Charles up to Jefferson Avenue is worth it for one stupid stop sign.

Here’s to the New Orleans Postal Service. Wasn’t your slogan once: “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night… ?” The band The Postal Service has delivered as many letters to my house as you have.