Old Is the New Young. Even in Hollywood!
"Top Gun: Maverick," the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit, opened to a blockbuster $156 million in the U.S. and Canada over the long Memorial Day weekend (2022), a box-office record for the holiday and a career-best debut for its lead, Tom Cruise. The movie creates a no-less-than-36-year-old franchise and reaffirms the 59-year-old (that's 60-1, if we're not mistaken) Cruise as a highly bankable movie star. Not exactly an elderly or a senior, the man, but he sure is, huh, mature. The movie stars Mr. Cruise as a veteran fighter pilot working with a group of younger recruits on a top-secret mission to destroy a uranium plant in an unidentified country. It has received rave reviews and ridden an aggressive marketing blitz by Paramount....
Traffic Deaths at 16-year High; Drive Carefully and Stay Safe
Traffic deaths reached a 16-year high in 2021 [as reported by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)]. The U.S. traffic fatalities increased 11% in 2021 from the prior year to the highest number since 2005, as the pandemic subsided and road travel increased. Good for the largest ever annual percentage increase in the nearly five-decade history of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Also notable are increases in several types of roadway deaths, including pedestrians (up 13%), on urban roads (up 16%), and in speeding-related crashes (up 5%). That's 42,915 deaths, or close to 120 a day. Next time anyone of us takes to the road, let's remember. 120 may die today, that's way too many, isn't it? The losses and...