ANIMAL BEAT DRUMS: By request, we're having a very special ALOTT5MA Friday Playlist.  Show us your best songs about animals--either generally or about any specific animal you can think of (cocktail party-appropriate music is particularly invited).  I'll start us off with two:

• Savage Garden's "The Animal Song"
• Neon Trees' "Animal."

THIS IS A STORY ALL ABOUT HOW THEIR LIVES GOT FLIPPED, TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: Twenty-five years ago today, West Philadelphia born-and-raised Will Smith and Jeff Townes released their second album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, and Jazzy Jeff's oral history of that ride to the stratosphere is worth your read. Includes his memories of being criticized for bringing hip-hop to the suburbs ("I felt like people started to think we were trying to take something else from them without realizing that all this is was a recognition that we’re doing something good,") and the whole Grammys controversy.

WIGS IN A BOX: Vulture helpfully chronicles the series of awful wigs that we've seen thus far on The Americans, which has been a darn interesting mashup of Mad Men (the periodness and the issues of interpersonal relationships in the age of deception) and Homeland (the spy stuff) thus far.

IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT:  According to a CareerBliss.Com survey, the happiest workers?  Real estate agents.  The least happy?  "Associate attorneys."  I'm sure we have some folks who will weigh in on that.

SKY HOOK: In one of those weird confluences of our interests, we have to note that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is now writing about TV for Esquire, and while it's unsurprising he talks about NCIS and The Following, the fairly lengthy tribute to Switched At Birth and Bunheads is a bit more surprising.

IN MY VIEW, AS GOOD AS THE YANKEES WERE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THIS GAME, THAT'S HOW AS BAD THEY'VE BEEN NOW:  Tim McCarver will retire from the booth after this baseball season. Deion Sanders could not yet be reached for comment.

THE ELEPHANTIASIS IN THE ROOM:  Jon Hamm begs you to stop talking about his penis.