I went to see "The Martian" yesterday. Wonderful movie, if about 25 minutes too long, but a really strong Oscar bid for both director Ridley Scott and star Matt Damon.

I always feel guilty about the space program, because when I was a kid and it was in its glory, I paid very little attention to it. (Although the whole neighborhood crammed into our living room to watch the moon landing. My father had a union job, and we were the only family with a color TV.) And every time I see Ron Howard's remarkable "Apollo 13" --a movie I stop to watch every time I pass it around the dials---I cringe when I think how little attention we Americans paid to that real life life-and-death space drama while it was actually happening.