I often leave a handle to a database global, and don't
bother adding it as a parameter to different subs, where
the first thing would be is shifting it off the parameter
list. But, IMO, that only works well in programs where you
can view the database as a single, omnipresent source.
A bit like STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR. They are in most programs
omnipresent, and we don't bother passing them around as
parameters.