Meg recently wrote a funny post about being a worrier:
Worriers are a breed of their own; they are the Lance Armstrongs of impending doom…the Wayne Gretzkys of groundless fears…the Bruce Jenners of wide-eyed concern. They take worrying and turn it into a lifestyle.
Some of you will say that worrying is unproductive and unhelpful. Some of you will claim that the strongest people you know are the ones who don’t worry. Some of you will even say that worriers express an intrinsic lack of faith in people and circumstances.
Pansies.
I am not, by nature, a worrier. I have a fairly lassez-faire attitude about life, and while I tend to consider the worst-case scenario, I don’t spend much time worrying about it. I’m pretty stoic, so if I can’t control the outcome of something, then I choose not to worry about it.
Despite its schmaltziness, “Why Worry” would make my top-ten Dire Straits songs. Heck, let’s round that list out. In no particular order:
- Les Boys (oddly)
- Sultans of Swing (don’t miss the live version on Live at the BBC)
- The Man is Too Strong (my cousin thinks it’s about Jesus, and I agree)
- Why Worry
- Portabello Belle (I’ve always been confused about the spelling, punctuation and general parsing of the first line “Bella donnas on the high street, her breasts upon the off beat”)
- Telegraph Road
- Brothers in Arms
- Money for Nothing (the first video I ever saw)
- Wild West End
- Romeo and Juliet (Though the Indigo Girls nearly ruined it for me. Not to be confused with Lou Reed’s “Romeo Had Juliette”, which is also excellent.)
I’m not such a huge Dire Straits fan anymore, but they were one of the first bands I really dug in my early adolesence.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
What’s with the Mark Knopfler around lately? Frontier Editor’s posting some great tunes.
Perhaps it’s to do with Douglas Adams’ contention about aphrodasiacs:
” … Or they could put Dire Straits on the stereo, which is widely known to have the same effect.”
But why put “Telegraph Road” at #6?
Well, they are ‘in no particular order’, so it’s not really at #6. Is that too high or too low?
What about Tunnel of Love, Single Handed Sailor, and Once Upon A Time In The West? I guess there are so many good Dire Straits songs that’s hard to squeeze them all into a top 10.
Money for Nothing was the first video for a lot of people – it was the first video shown when MTV Europe was launched.
Since I was 6 when that video came out, I wasn’t aware of it. I DO remember seeing the Weird Al parody before the real version.
“Why worry” is indeed a great song.
The only one of your list that I don’t like is “Money for nothing”.