Mother's Day, MNF, and Happy Songs

It's Mother's Day and a happy one to all.

Mother's come in all styles. Foster, adopted, pets, natural, grand, great-grand and so on.

So, whatever you are, have a happy one.

*****

Howard, Dandy Don, and Giff -- 1977

I was reading reactions to the mercy-killing of the Monday Night Football broadcast booth. I'll put it this way: their style just didn't work.

Like it or not, the broadcasters are a part of the show -- every show. Sure, some are less intrusive, but that's never been the MNF formula. Keith Jackson didn't quite fit the style coming out of 1970 so in came Frank Gifford and, obviously, there's no duplicating Frank, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell. There were other parts in through the years before it became Frank, Dan Dierdorf and Al Michaels. And other parts after that.

It all changed once Sunday Night Football took over. They had the flash of the stupid theme song, a veteran production team, the marquee games and the marquee both with Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, plus the terrific Michele Tafoya.

MNF has been in flux ever since with dicey games, followed by the departure of Mike Tirico.

The buzz was that Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, and Boomer McFarland were in trouble from the start. The issues went from the "Booger Mobile" to Witten's obvious discomfort trying to become the "next Tony Romo" to Joe Tesses' perpetual cheerleading, bordering on Gus Johnson-esque calls that seemed like he wanted to sell me on the game.

Buzz is that Steve Levy is the likely new PBP voice. I'll say this: there needs to be a little sizzle with the steak.

The A-Team is available, as Chris Erway and I were laughing about it yesterday. It could be a full Connecticut pedigree, with Dan Orlovsky in the booth.

As I pay attention to such things (including uniforms, much to the dismay of some), I will be keeping an eye on it.

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled 30-Day Song Challenge.

Day 9: A song that makes you happy.

There are so many choices here. That happiness can stem from a memory of hearing the song or that the song itself is so happy.

So this is a fairly open-ended idea.

And so we come to the world of "(I Got You) I Feel Good," basically anything by Sly & the Family Stone, and the super-saccharine sweet sounds of too many others, perhaps represented in this case by "Silly Love Songs" (if only to irritate some). Certainly "A Hard Day's Night" brings me amazing joy as does a lot of other great songs.

But, I was reminded of chatting with a friend one time when they played a song on the jukebox.

"I'm not the biggest Tom Petty fan," they said. "But I like this song for a reason."

I smiled.

"It reminds me of Silence of the Lambs," I said. "'Out on 441 like waves crashing on the beach.'"

Shocked. I was spot on.

Yup. She was an American Girl.