TV Picks Oct.19-Nov.1, 2008

VARIOUS

P. Allen Smith Gardens

CATHOLIC FAMILYLAND At 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays, these half-hour shows present how-to garden projects, interviews with expert gardeners, from-the-garden recipes, and garden decorating and travel ideas.


SUNDAY, 9 p.m.

Into Great Silence

EWTN German filmmaker Philip Groning’s three-hour documentary from 2007 uses no narration and limited dialogue (which includes Latin as well as English) as it observes the cloistered Carthusian monks in their daily life of work, prayer and intimacy with God at the Monastery of the Grand Chartreuse in the French Alps.


MONDAY, 3 a.m., 6:30 p.m.

Angels of the Arctic Circle

EWTN Agnieszka Dzieduszycka directed this 1999 documentary about the Carmelite monastery in Tromso, Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. Invited by the local bishop, the sisters have become a spiritual beacon to their neighbors, mostly Protestants and nonbelievers, as they pray to reduce the number of babies aborted in the area.


TUESDAY, 8 p.m.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

ABC The late Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic-strip characters are the stars of this 1966 animated special as Linus expects a Halloween visit to the pumpkin patch from his imaginary “Great Pumpkin.” A bonus “Peanuts” cartoon short follows.


WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway

PBS This hour-long documentary by Rick Sebak traces the U.S.A.’s first transcontinental highway, completed in 1913, from New York City to San Francisco. We learn about the highway’s construction and a few re-routings, and we visit with current locals at stops along the way, such as Mount Vernon, Iowa, Grand Island, Neb., and Ibapah, Utah.


FRIDAY, 10:30 a.m., live

Cooking With the Saints

CATHOLICTV Join cooking expert Barbara Riley in her “heavenly” kitchen. Re-airs 8 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.

Why Pro-Lifers Fear FOCA

If Democrats in Congress have their way, and if Barack Obama is elected president, a sweeping bill codifying the Roe v. Wade decision would reverse years of pro-life gains.

Occultist to Evangelist

Moira Noonan will be celebrating Halloween as the vigil of All Saints. That’s a break with her previous life as a leader in the New Age movement. The Register asks her about her trek back to the Church.