What is the WAHT Award?

This economy has been a slog for a LONG time in the U.S..... and even longer for the North American Forest Products industry.  However, pretending it isn't bad or pretending it's better than it is doesn't help cope with reality or plan to thrive as best one can, no matter the situation.

Nevertheless to us the popular media often partakes in Orwellian newspeak, apparently trying to convince people the economy is better than what they are experiencings first hand.  There have been many examples during this downturn but one that stands out served as the launching point for our Perspective "Light at the End of the Tunnel?".  The mid-August 2009 headline read: "Analysis: Housing begins long, slow rebound”.  The first line of the article confidently asserted, “It was – note the past tense – the worst housing recession anyone but survivors of the Great Depression can remember.”

Humor sometimes can help in coping with challenging conditions.  And so, when we stumble across a news story that goes the extra mile in trying to convice us of the unconvincable, we want to distinguish it by bestowing on it the "WAHT award".  The WAHT Award refers to the song "Whistle a Happy Tune" by Oscar Hammerstein II from the musical "The King and I".  The song's lyrics explain better than we ever could just what the WAHT award is all about:

Whenever I feel afraid
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect I'm afraid.

 While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows I'm afraid.

 The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people
I fear I fool myself as well!

 I whistle a happy tune
And ev'ry single time
The happiness in the tune
Convinces me that I'm not afraid.

 Make believe you're brave
And the trick will take you far.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are