Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, January 31, 2023, or: A Quick ‘Tempus Fugit’ Piece & Blu-ray Collection Update

Time Flies Onward…1973-2023

If you’re a regular reader of A Certain Point of View, Too, you know that this year is of some significance to this writer.

First, in less than 33 days, I will be 60 years old. I wrote about how I feel about that yesterday, so I am not going to repeat myself today. Let’s just say that it’s a landmark occasion and leave it at that.

Second, it’s the 50^th anniversary of:

• The end of America’s combat role in the Vietnam War and North Vietnam’s release of all U.S. prisoners of war (POW)
• The Miami Dolphins’ win over the Washington Redskins (now Commanders) in Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles. The Fins capped their “Perfect Season” of 14 regular season games and three post-season ones with a 14-7 victory at the Los Angeles Coliseum on January 14, 1973
• The theatrical release of American Graffiti, Live and Let Die, and The Sting, which I own on Blu-ray, as well as Charlotte’s Web (which I saw in theaters in 1973 and still remember fondly)

On a related note, since I don’t watch the news on TV much, I learned today that Cindy Williams, who played Laurie in George Lucas’s American Graffiti and went on to co-star (with Penny Marshall) in TV’s Laverne & Shirley a few years later, died on January 25 at the age of 75. I wasn’t a regular viewer of her late 1970s sitcom, which itself was a spinoff of Happy Days, but American Graffiti is one of my favorite 1970s films, and Williams was great in it as the girlfriend of Ron Howard’s character Steve (and younger sister to Curt, the character played by Richard Dreyfuss.) She died, according to the Associated Press, after a short (and undisclosed) illness.

Movie Collection Update

In other news, my Blu-ray collection will be growing by one title later this afternoon. My copy of Young Sherlock Holmes – Limited Steelbook Edition, which I had pre-ordered in November, canceled, then changed my mind and put it back on pre-order, is out for delivery as I write this.

I am not a devotee of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes canon, nor of the movies based on the many stories about the famous fictional detective, but I do have several “pastiche” novels by Nicholas Meyer (the same guy who directed Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and The Day After), including 1974’s The Seven Percent Solution.  

I also like director Barry Levinson’s work, and since my favorite filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, executive produced Young Sherlock Holmes – and because the movie was highly recommended by my friend Patti Aliventi – I decided to get the movie even though I missed it when it was out in theaters 38 years ago, and I’ve only seen the first few minutes of the first act on Amazon Prime Video.

I should wrap this up so I can go take a shower, get dressed, and maybe go out for a walk. So, until next time, stay safe, healthy, and warm, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.