Living with Earworms for Breakfast

When I wake up, it’s Morning Joe for me. No, not a cup of coffee. As most of you know, I don’t drink the stuff—I get my caffeine from fresh-brewed English Breakfast Tea and Diet Coke or Pepsi. Morning Joe is the program on MSNBC that starts my day.

Yes, I watch it for the politics, and for a recap of whatever bizarre rants may have come across social media while I slept. It’s wall-to-wall talking heads and daily predictions of democracy’s demise. But what sticks with me through the rest of the day is the music—the 5 or 10 seconds of bumper music leading into the commercial breaks.

I don’t know who programs the music (the most recent reference I can find online is to David Quanvie in 2011), but whoever it is shares my musical tastes to a T (not necessarily English Breakfast).

There is U2—lots of U2—whether it is an upbeat few bars from “Beautiful Day” or the martial drum beats of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” When I hear that, I want to grab a flag and march all around the kitchen.

One perfect Bruce Springsteen riff, and I’ll be humming “Badlands” or “Thunder Road” for the rest of the morning. Today was just a snippet of Joe Walsh’s “Life of Illusion,” but the lyric “nature loves her little surprises” was in my head throughout my breakfast. And the morning will come—I know it will come—when I’ll hear Joe and his Eagle buddies buttering my toast with their steely knives at the Hotel California.

Years ago, a colleague told me she gave up reading my blog posts because my lyrical introductions put too many earworms in her brain. But I’m not complaining about the catchy little ear critters I get from “Morning Joe.” The music gets me in a great mood for the day, something the news itself doesn’t manage to do anymore.

And maybe someday hosts Joe and Mika will entertain us with a “Talking Heads” song. Anyone for “Burning Down the House,” or “Life During Wartime”?

Yesterday, I was sworn in as a Trustee for the Village of Riverwoods. I want to clarify that my blog is not an official voice for the Village nor a forum for conducting Village affairs. It’s me and my readers just having fun!