Well, thanks to all the online help from y'all, I'm chugging my way thru the older seasons of TAR starting with everybody's 2nd fav (apparently) TAR5. I think it's funny where Marshall says the Russians must be the most miserable people in the world (I know, not a judgment call, just what he sees on the trains). But he is not too far off the mark, in a recent survey of the happiest nations in the world, Russia was in the bottom 10 (89 out of 99, with Georgia occupying 2 spots at 90 & 91 - go figure) - and this is by their own reckoning! This survey is the average of many surveys from 1995-2007, so maybe things have changed with all the recent oil wealth there. But clearly it's not only related to wealth, given that Colombia is #3, El Salvador is #11 and Guatemala is just below USA at #17!! The CNN article said peace and stability appear to be the overriding factors, which may make sense from the bottom 10 (except Russia), but some of these top ones are sure not what you might expect!!
Full list is at
http://albeiror24.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/list-of-ranked-happiest-countries-by-world-values-surveys/1. Denmark (4.24)
2. Puerto Rico (4.21)
3. Colombia (4.1)
4. Iceland (4.15)
5. North Ireland (4.13)
6. Ireland (4.12)
7. Switzerland (3.96)
8. Netherlands (3.77)
9. Canada (3.76)
10. Austria (3.6)
11. El Salvador (3.67)
..
15. New Zeland (3.57)
16. U.S.A. (3.55)
17. Guatemala (3.53)
18. Mexico (3.52)
89. Russia (-1.01)
90. Georgia (-1.01)
91. Georgia (-1.01)
92. Bulgaria (-1.09)
93. Iraq (-1.36)
94. Albania (-1.44)
95. Ukraine (-1.69)
96. Belarus (-1.74)
97. Moldova (-1.74)
98. Armenia (-1.80)
99. Zimbabwe (-1.92)