Some ways to get through the saddest day of the year

Blue Monday songs that will have you reaching for the straight razor:

• Hurt: check out Johnny Cash’s stark version of this Trent Reznor ditty — if you dare.

• I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry: I think I have while listening to Hank Williams perform his own song.

• Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs): I’d suggest the second movement of this jaw-dropping work by someone named Henryk Gorecki.

• The River: Springsteen at his most despondent: Now those memories come back to haunt me/they haunt me like a curse/ Is a dream a lie if it don't come true/or is it something worse.

• The Boxer: This bleak Simon & Garfunkel narrative will resonate with every Atlantic Canadian ever gone elsewhere looking for a job.

• Cats in the Cradle: Find me a parent who hasn’t sighed in recognition while listening to this Harry Chapin chestnut.

• It was a Very Good Year: Everyone hearing this song is Frank Sinatra, fedora tipped back, two fingers of scotch in a shot glass, considering the autumn of life.

• Seasons in the Sun: not the best song on this list, but this, by Canadian Terry Jacks, is surely one of the most lamentful.

• The Band Player Waltzing Matilda: I prefer, if that is the right word, the Pogues version of this aching anti-war song.

• What’s He Building In There: Tom Waits is creepy and depressing best of times. This is not the best of times.

Movies to binge-watch to get through Blue Monday:

• The Black Stallion: a fantasy about a kid shipwrecked on an island with a wild Arabian stallion that works for adults too.

• To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch’s humanity shines through the black and white film version of Harper Lee’s beloved novel.

• Rocky: All the Rock had to do was go the distance—a message that will get anyone through hard times.

• My Brilliant Career: spunky Judy Davis chooses to focus on building her career as a writer despite marriage proposals from a pair of disparate suitors.

• The Princess Bride: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya,” said Mandy Patinkin. “You killed my father. Prepare to die.” It’s a love story.

• Friday Night Lights: whether you watch the TV series or the movie, just remember, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."

• The Full Monty: it has a tapped out colliery town and Hot Chocolate. That is all.

• Being There: a thinking person’s Forrest Gump.

• The Commitments: a Rocky for working-class Irish soul musicians.

• Stand By Me: Life is hard but friendship is forever.