Ask an industry expert about the current state of retail, and the feeling is better, but not great.

FORBES: Retail

What's more, Mr. Vidak's strong showing has put the state GOP in the unfamiliar position of feeling hopeful.

WSJ: Allysia Finley: A Farmers' Rebellion Lifts the California GOP

But it may also herald the re-emergence, after a decades-long trend among Israel's neighbours to accommodate the Jewish state, of a broad rejectionist front, this time inspired by pan-Islamist feeling rather than the pan-Arab nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s.

ECONOMIST: The Arab world

She had been feeling envious for a long time of the higher life of the state, where there was now heroism, renown, and vigor, and where the youth and strength of an old woman, vainly expended in deprivation and horror in the old days, were in demand again.

NEWYORKER: Among Animals and Plants