When I was growing up in Canada in the early 1940s, we always turned on the radio to keep us company during breakfast, but instead of the doom and gloom headlines with which we currently begin every day in 2008 (whether we tune in to radio, television, or the Internet), my family of origin listened to "The Happy Gang." The cheery program began with a triple knock on the door. "Who's there?" the announcer asked. After a couple of tries, there was an answer. "It's the Happy Gang," the team of radio hosts chortled, and they proceeded to sing, "Be happy with the happy gang, keep smiling with the happy gang," and so on. My family and I were singing right along with them. It went great with our before-school cornflakes and rice krispies ("snap, crackle, pop," remember?). And then our own little happy gang walked to school. Then, when I married in the 1950s, my husband and his sales team started the day by singing a chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again." Lustily and together. It sounds corny, but it works. So that's why, given the news of impending disaster, economic and otherwise, that faces us every day, I think it's time to revive that old 1930s song, "Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money/Maybe we're ragged and funny/But we'll travel along/Singing our song/Side by side..." Even if we only belt it out in the shower, it's a great way to start the day.  I heartily recommend it at breakfast time, en famille. Maybe they can sing it on Wall Street too.