But on present evidence, it is legitimate to wonder whether, once the pieces settle, Britain's place in the world might not look rather the same as it did before.
It may look bad in the raw math, but may not turn out so bad for all parties when the pieces settle into place.
Where the pieces settle will be largely up to the oncoming year, but we think the following trends have the potential to hugely change the education landscape.
Both started strongly, but Mr. Powell's piece settled into clichés about jazz duets, and Mr. Trice's dance went from dramatic mystery to chaos.
And while it wasn't universally acclaimed (Jack Anderson expressed reservations amid measured praise in The New York Times, remarking that " 'Trying Times' was a trying time in several senses"), the piece settled into the annals of dance lore and memory.
As the piece settled into its final, major-key glow, I could see from my colleagues' faces that I wasn't the only one who felt there was something new in the hall, something vital, alive and bigger than all of us.
I liked best the third and final movement, in which for the first time the piece settles into an extended episode of pulsating music, all breathless energy and fractured phrases.
Soon the piece settles into an industrious rondo, and the music becomes an elusive evocation of a vaguely Classical piano concerto: a bit of Mozart, a bit of Prokofiev but, finally, all Britten.
Only when the last piece settles will we be able to assess the total impact of the subprime meltdown.
The end of that piece settles with a 20-part chord that [the violins and the electronics] play continuously; you can't hear what's a violin and what's 1-bit.
