The low costs of borrowing will inevitably keep some companies alive that would otherwise have gone bankrupt this year, creating a class of so-called zombie companies that stagger along but are too weak to invest and grow while sucking up cash that could be put to better use elsewhere.

Some other forms of mass entertainment managed to stagger along: Musicians record songs and livestream concerts from home, and talk shows have set up shop in their hosts’ living rooms.

Coughing from the fumes of the brick factory’s kilns, which are laid out in long, block-like grids like a miniature city, Zakir and Alexey stagger along trying to determine which worker may be Dmitri.

Without a budget, the state’s spending authority is restricted, but enough remains to allow the government to stagger along like a zombie bureaucracy.

I’ve watched mountain bikers continue racing with broken collarbones, and runners stagger along trails while puking incessantly.