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Keep a Song in Your Heart: Remembering Lawrence Welk

Every time I visited my grandfather in North Loup, Nebraska — there was one unspoken, but wholly enforced rule — on Sunday nights at 7:00pm, you sat down with him and watched the Lawrence Welk Show on ABC television.

It was an hour of a painful persuasion for a young lad to bear — second only to the never-ending reruns of Hee Haw that aired every single weeknight that I was also forced to watch during each visit.

I never learned to like, or even tolerate, the Welk show.  The show was a matter of saccharine moments topped with thick frosting of faux frivolity and façade.  All show and no substance.  Complete spectacle and no plot.

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Sunday Seafood Special from Alentejo

Living close to the sea in Portugal, we are blessed with an abundance of seafood.  A favourite starter is often a shared dish of clams. These are usually cooked in a little olive oil, some wine, coriander and salt and pepper. All that is needed to finish is a squeeze of lemon.

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Why Bother with Religion?

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

[Author’s Caution: Religion is one of the most touching subjects which an individual may want to approach. Open your eyes as well as your mind while reading this article because it may take more than your attention. It may take your courage as well.]

Surprise, there isn’t a surprise. Don’t we hate that? Yeap, we do. That’s why we get bored about the tedious religious world. Religion becomes boring if you know what you will get, heaven or hell. That’s putting it in its most simple possible result, or at least in a pretty objective manner of approaching the two relevant issues which seem to scare or satisfy the most. That’s pathetic, but a close-naked reality.

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