A one anna two anna let me blow my brains out

Stop, you're killing me!

Lawrence Welk died on this day in 1992. He was the cause of the slow death of millions of kids growing up in the 'fifties. Seeing his show now, one can look on it with amusement, but to a kid seeing it live every week, his parents looking on enthralled, it was an inkling that there is something malevolent at the heart of life.

While reading about Welk on the Web, I came across This great site:

Today’s Deathless Verse:

Sunday nights, at the very first strain

  Of that champagne music, sham pain

I’d show to my parents; I’d feign

  Dire agony, as if being slain.

“You can go to your room,” they’d both sigh.

  “We wouldn’t want you to die.”

To each other, they’d rue, what a waste—

  The youth of today has no taste.

If you're a masochist: