How to convey nonchalance during Pinteresque pauses in the golf-club locker rooms.

His office friends could offer little solace, he said. They are preoccupied with their own anxious limbo. Summoning the post-apocalyptic refrain, he added, "It’s like 'The living envy the dead.'" — "The Language of Loss for the Jobless," by Jan Hoffman, NYT.