Note to Cesar Alvarez: You Are Now Officially Bumming Me Out.

So I had a great weekend, how about you? Good friends, good times, intensive dieting followed by even more intensive windsurfing.

But then I open up the paper on Sunday and there he is, on the front page, above the fold, spouting doom and gloom. Yes it's our favorite philosopher-king, Cesar Alvarez:

Cesar L. Alvarez has practiced corporate law in Miami through 35 years and five national recessions.

He has seen the energy crisis of the 1970s, the rampant inflation of the late '70s and early '80s, and the savings-and-loan failures of the early '90s. But now, with a record housing bust, a financial system meltdown and consumer confidence in the basement, he says none of the past downturns was as bad as today's.

''I think this is the worst that I have seen,'' said Alvarez, now the CEO of the 1,800-lawyer Greenberg Traurig firm. ``If I had to rank it, I would rank it No. 1.''

Dude, you sound like you're channeling only half of Rick Springfield:

Everyone's sayin the sky's gonna fall
Don't know where its gonna stop
If it stops at all
I know the world's goin crazy alright
I hope it holds together for one more night
Tonight I'm crawling out from in it
And though were livin on the brink
Second by second by minute by minute

But Cesar I think you forgot the rest of that song:

Don't worry daddy, I'll have her home at a respectable hour
Go to sleep daddy, you won't think about tonight
With the night comes a feeling of incredible power
Gonna love her daddy, she'll be feeling it tonight
Alright, its gonna be alright
It's gonna be alright, its gonna be alright

Love is alright tonight
We're gonna be alright
Love is alright
Love is alright tonight

See, all you working-class dogs, everything IS gonna be alright.

Sheesh Cesar, you had me going there for a minute.