All the discussion of late around the Confederate flag brought the band Lynyrd Skynyrd to mind, since that flag is part of the band’s logo.
(I didn’t use that version here on The Sticky Egg because, um…no.)
That led us to talking about where we were when we learned about the plane crash that killed half of the band members.
[If you’re too young to a) know who Lynyrd Skynyrd is, or b) remember the plane crash, move along.]
I was in bed asleep. The phone rang — a corded phone, no less — and I walked down to my mother’s bedroom to answer it. A good friend of my oldest brother was on the line, and he was crying. I may have been young, but I knew a call that late at night could only mean one thing…
Someone had died.
We woke up my brother, who came to the phone in a fog of sleep. We heard him say, “Oh no. Oh God. Oh no.” Then he hung up the phone and turned to go back to bed. We stopped him, saying, “Wait — what happened?”
He said simply, “Lynyrd Skynyrd died.”
I’m not sure either my mother or I knew exactly what that meant, so we went on to bed. When we questioned my brother the next morning, he barely remembered the phone call.
But it stuck in my memory, all these years — the day Lynyrd Skynyrd died.
Something’s afoot
You know Sherlock Holmes from novels, television and film.
Mr. Holmes gives us the man behind the myth — the real detective that was fictionalized some 30 years after his last case.
This Holmes is 93 years old, frail and in the early stages of what appears to be Alzheimers. Aware that his memory is fading, he returns to his country home (and his bees) to attempt to piece together the forgotten details of his final case — a failure that made him leave sleuthing for good.
But why can’t he remember that mistake?
Ian McKellen is wonderful in the title role…more human and less ticky than his predecessors, although just as brutally honest. Laura Linney’s accent comes and goes as the dour housekeeper, but Milo Parker is winning as her son Roger, who helps Holmes care for his bees and ultimately find his past.
There’s even a little something for fans of Young Sherlock Holmes, which I am…so I left the theater happy.
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Posted in Books, Celebrities, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Movies, Television
Tagged Alzheimers, books, celebrities, commentary, detective, entertainment, Humor, Ian Kellen, Laura Linney, memory, Milo Parker, Movies, Mr. Holmes, reviews, Television, Young Sherlock Holmes