Love

Con amore. With love, the Italians say. Performances that are delivered truly con amore are incredibly uplifting and, alas, all too rare.The concert at Maryland Hall last Saturday featuring the extraordinary Ethel Ennis, Maryland's first lady of song, J. Ernest Green's Annapolis Chorale and pianist Stef Scaggiari was one of those uplifting occasions.Everything about the concert -- the singing, the playing, the musical arrangements, the audience response -- was full of love.Each note that comes out of Ethel Ennis is sensitive and joyous, its tonal luster intact.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The undeclared duel between Davis Love III and Fred Couples played second lead yesterday to the cast of players fighting for first place in the Kmart Greater Greensboro Open.Grabbing shares of the spotlight with 5-under-par 67s were Phil Blackmar, Brian Claar, Jeff Maggert, Robert Gamez, Kenny Perry and Bill Britton. Love and Couples have won two tournaments each this year, quite an accomplishment compared with the six leaders' six career tournament wins.Love, winner last week of the Heritage Golf Classic, struggled to an 71, due in part to consecutive bogeys on the back nine.

GINNY MATTHIAS of Glenelg loves her work. It combines her hobby -- gardening -- with her former profession, counseling. But most important, what she does makes a difference in the lives of other people. Matthias works in horticultural therapy which, as she explains it, means "using plants in a therapeutic way." She runs gardening programs for senior citizens at St. Ann Adult Services and St. Elizabeth Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, both in Catonsville, as well as several retirement communities.

A Mass of Christian burial for Richard D. Love Jr., a retired district sales manager for the Monumental Life Insurance Co., will be offered at 9 a.m. today at the Roman Catholic Church of the Resurrection, Paulskirk Drive and Chatham Road, Ellicott City.Mr. Love, who was 66, died Monday at his home in Lakeland, Fla., after an illness of several months.He retired over a year ago after 40 years with the insurance company.Born in Baltimore and a graduate of Loyola High School and the University of Maryland, he served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He was a member of Lions Clubs International.

Love and butterflies are the innocent motifs floating above a swamp of anger, darkness, daring and occasional stupidity in five new works of fiction this fall. Though these books are widely dissimilar, they do share characteristics. Butterflies are a strong motif in two, used to wildly different effect, while love, or the lack thereof, pervades the rest. John Updike is back with more of his character Rabbit Angstrom, who's dead but continues to have a profound effect on the people he left behind.

Garrison Keillor, writer, master storyteller and radio star, has been all over the place lately. His book, "WLT: A Radio Romance," remains a strong seller in bookstores. Each Saturday, he writes, produces and hosts "American Radio Company," aired on 235 public radio stations.Now he's even on the tube. In fact, "Garrison Keillor's Hello Love" is the second of three specials for PBS. The first aired in November; the third is set for April.Garrison Keillor, television star?Loyal Keillor fans nervous about Keillor leaving his radio days need not worry.

The Sea of Tears By Nani Power. Counterpoint. 238 pages. $25. Love: There, surely, is a cause we can all get behind. Nani Power's new novel, The Sea of Tears, is very pro-love. When she declares in the prologue, "all the great tales are about love. ... At the root of all evil is a heart denied love," Power's wide-eyed optimism about the human heart seems like it could be just the thing -- a refreshing antidote to the steady cultural diet we're fed of dysfunctional couples and terrible marriages.

POTOMAC -- Davis Love III is certain of one thing as he enters today's final round of the $1.4 million Kemper Open with a one-stroke lead.Another par 71 like he shot yesterday won't be good enough to win. But he's not likely to need anything as dazzling as his 8-under 63 that tied the Kemper and Tournament Players Club at Avenel course record on Friday, either."

Love, by Toni Morrison. Knopf. 208 pages. $23.95. The Cosey women are like sea glass, hardened by their emotional shipwrecks and fused in their storm-tossed, mutual infatuation with one charismatic man. Thus is their fate sealed in Love, Toni Morrison's new novel, set in the faded glory of an ocean-side resort for the black upper-class, a remnant of segregated America. A list of the main characters would suggest formula romance: There's the patriarch, so revered in the community that his amorality is tolerated; his kleptomaniac daughter-in-law; his insecure bride and his granddaughter, best friends who become bitter rivals; a con artist and her teen lover; a mistress whose presence haunts the beach.

ELIZABETH I.Anne Somerset.Knopf.636 pages. $30. Elizabeth Tudor was a woman in a world of men, yet she gave her name to the age. For more than four centuries, her life has been a source of fascination for historians and readers.Anne Somerset's biography is a strong, straight-ahead book that stresses context and explanation. Author of two previous histories, Ms. Somerset is after the why and how of things. She wants to see the connections -- between events, between people. This is a boon for readers, even those who have read much about Elizabeth.