Nick at Night's airings got me hooked back in the mid-80s. Work a late shift, get home and travel vicariously (only travel I could afford).

America needs to get on the ball and start making those sweet chili flavor chips that I bought in Australia. (The honey mesquite chicken flavor, not so much.)

He's also written that she was a good sport about the mocking, took it as the hyperbole it (mostly) was and was so genuinely nice to him about it, rather than taking it personally *ahem, Paula Deen* that he just couldn't pick on her anymore.

Yes, and also on the "travel broadens" angle, when he went to — I think Laos? — for "No Reservations" in the past couple of seasons, he compared it to his first visit there during "Cook's Tour," and remarked about what an ass he was at that time — that he was trying to show off, rather than experience the place.

True Story: After watching this one Christmas, my teenage niece turned to me and said, "So every time she looks in the mirror, she sees her inner self rather than the way she looks on the outside, right?" "Right," I said.

A friend of mine who has a small herd of goats (for milk & cheese sales) also informs me that not only are some of them sheep, some of the actual goats were making the noise they make at mating time.

I'm involved with a music venue in Ann Arbor, and we had Rodriguez at our festival just last week, where he got an amazing reception (and sounded great, of course).

The musician Peter Mulvey covered that song, and in the liner notes wrote: Dear Mr. Newman, if you've written a creepier song than this, please keep it to yourself.

So many callbacks! I cheered at the fatal hallucinigenic butterflies.

Lesson number one: Never, ever, fuck with Olivia.

I don't recall any reference to "Colonel." I just heard Walter say: "He's September."

I don't recall any reference to "Colonel." I just heard Walter say: "He's September."

My mother likes to brag about the time she saw Lawrence Welk playing at the roller rink for a dance in small-town Michigan in the late 30s. She still thinks it was one of the best shows she saw. She now has dementia and Alzheimer's issues, but put on Lawrence Welk and she'll still smile and nod along. Sometimes even…

My mother likes to brag about the time she saw Lawrence Welk playing at the roller rink for a dance in small-town Michigan in the late 30s. She still thinks it was one of the best shows she saw. She now has dementia and Alzheimer's issues, but put on Lawrence Welk and she'll still smile and nod along. Sometimes even…

We weren't allowed to listen to anything but Christian radio, so Lawrence Welk was the sole exposure to secular music we were allowed. (Until my parents made the mistake of bringing headphones into the house. Hell yeah! Cue up a nice churchy LP on the stereo, but secretly switch it over to a rock station on the radio.)

We weren't allowed to listen to anything but Christian radio, so Lawrence Welk was the sole exposure to secular music we were allowed. (Until my parents made the mistake of bringing headphones into the house. Hell yeah! Cue up a nice churchy LP on the stereo, but secretly switch it over to a rock station on the radio.)

It was the perfect antidote to a day in which The Onion was so right with the "Fuck everything" commentary.

It was the perfect antidote to a day in which The Onion was so right with the "Fuck everything" commentary.

Vashta Nerada — double geek hit.

Vashta Nerada — double geek hit.