Got home fine Tuesday night but have been playing catch-up ever since, from reading e-mail to writing my first post-vacation HeldenFiles (in tomorrow's Beacon Journal) to mowing the lawn this evening. Nothing too dramatic on TV to write about, and I haven't been to the movies for some time. Hope to have something of substance by tomorrow.

is, of course, Chuck Berry's brown-eyed handsome man. And me. Heading back to Akron this afternoon.

For the last week I've spent most of my time moving, in Firesign Theatre's phrase, forward into the past. Boxes of books, notebooks, memories — things I have mentioned here, and some things I haven't yet. You want a taste of history, take a look at a Texas A&M yearbook from 1916.

Have journeyed backward with people, too, seeing my mother's friends of many years standing. It has not only been good to catch up on their lives, it has been inspiring. In their eighties, these folks have the occasional physical limitation but still live with vigor, enthusiasm and good cheer. Many have endured heartache and loss, but their spirit and their faith keep them going strong. They know the past but still look to the future.

In my late fifties, I feel the loss of youth plenty of times. Sitting in a medical waiting room yesterday while my mother was getting checked (and proved to be very well), I was flipping through a copy of Spin and recognizing how little I know about contemporary music. (OK, I knew Paul Weller — who gave a nice nod to the Black Keys, by the way — and am aware of Zooey Deschanel as an actress.) But I have been reminded that there are plenty of good years yet to be had, plenty of time to enjoy.

Season two begins tonight on AMC. The first season ended in late 1960, the second season picks up in early 1962. The clothes are still sharp, the tension is still pervasive. There are new issues and ideas in the world, and the series deals with them — and its many characters — with great skill. Just don't expect answers to all the questions from the first-season finale in tonight's telecast.

I keep meaning to post but I have been spending most of the day going through boxes (my father was a saver) and then going to sleep early. And through it all, thinking about the past — and not only my own.

How, for instance, do you not pause over a 1962 booklet called "Family Shelter Designs"? It's not a camping guide. Put out by the Office of Civil Defense, it offered instructions on building a fallout shelter — eight different designs "for construction in backyards and basements, and for use by families who do not have access to community shelters or who prefer that their shelters be at their homes."

"If properly constructed," it notes, "all the shelters have a fallout radiation protection factor of at least 100 — the minimum recommended by the Department of Defense." We did not have a shelter but one of our next-door neighbors did; I don't know if they used the CD instructions or not.

Then there's the 1935 yearbook from Duncan Union High School in Arizona, which proudly proclaims itself the school's first annual. And a 1948 yearbook from what was then the Georgia State College for Women, with a picture of my chemistry-major mother at work in a laboratory.

And a family book of "household accounts" from April 1950. The list includes 25 cents spent at a bakery, loaves of bread for 16 cents each, "Cokes and Orange Crush" for $1.02.

You can see how the time passes. And how small the world is. From another box: "Peter Rabbit Goes to School" and other books from the old Saalfield publishing company, in Akron.

I have been having some technical difficulties that have kept me from posting, but the hours have hardly been empty. In between helping my mother go through some things, I finally caught up on a bit of TV reading: Barbara Walters' autobiography, "Audition."

At close to 600 pages, it's a long read and at times an exhausting one. I was far more interested in the stories from her early life and work than in the series of anecdotes about celebrities and heads of state.

But in its recounting of all aspects of her life and work, "Audition" was sort of like The Longest Barbara Walters Special Ever, trying to blend a little of everything she thinks her audience wants: the newsmakers, the stars, the little known person whose life is nonetheless interesting (in this case, young Barbara, daughter of the impresario Lou Walters), the "View"-like dish. There are stories to make you laugh, and those to make you cry, and some that will probably make you mad. (Walters's adult dealings with her parents and her sister seem quite cold at times.) One approach for some readers may be to start with the index, and skip around to the people you're most interested in; sort of like watching only parts of one of those Walters specials.

A few general things that struck me:

– Walters knew she had to talk about her upbringing, her marriages, her affairs and her once-stormy relationship with her daughter, and she does so with what appears to be great frankness — the sort of frankness she would expect from one of the people she interviews. But there comes a point, after she has described the end of her third marriage, when Walters writes, "I think that is enough about my personal life." And to a great extent she sticks to that. I don't think Walters would have let someone else off so easily.

– She has some rather flexible views about conflicts of interest. Even though her news mandate was wide, it did not keep her from having personal relationships with people whose work might overlap hers, such as Alan Greenspan and politicians Edward Brooke and John Warner. To be sure, she is not unique in that respect, but it does not appear to have concerned her that she was dating people she might have to report about. She definitely took sides in the Jean Harris case, drawing what has to be an awkward line by declaring she was an impartial journalist "in terms of my own interviews with Harris, but on my own time definitely not." (ABC News ultimately told Walters she could not report on the case; she did continue to visit Harris and did interview Harris after she was pardoned.) And anyone who remembers Walters's interview with Monica Lewinsky knows how protective Walters was. (The deal-making around the interview will make some journalism purists cringe, too.) In "Audition," Walters said that "I believed in my heart that I could do the best possible interview for her."

– She is also flexible about the truth. For example, she freely acknowledges that both Debbie Matenopoulos and Star Jones were given a chance to say they were leaving "The View" by choice, when that was not the case — and Jones, of course, went public about her firing. There's a photo she says is from an ad for Citgo Gas; it doesn't look like an ad, but the point here is that, as she says in the photo caption, "I don't even drive." I suspect that Walters's upbringing around the illusions of show business can still be felt. And that nags at me when I consider the parts of the book where she does appear to be frank.

– I did get to the end of the book with a clearer sense of who Walters is. I can't say I liked her any more or less than I did before reading "Audition," but I think I understand her better.

I am now in Virginia, visiting my mother and helping her out with some things as she mends from hip replacement surgery. She is doing quite well, but it will be good to be around so she has plenty of time and assistance as she recovers.

Air travel today wasn't too bad. Packed planes but some leg room, at least on the first flight of the day. Second flight: Next to a tall man playing solitaire on his laptop. Not conducive to elbow or leg room. But on the first flight, had a nice chat with a former Canton resident now living in Las Vegas. (An aside on what it takes to get a reasonably priced plane ticket: I flew from Akron to Atlanta to Newport News, not exactly a direct route; she went from Akron to Atlanta to Las Vegas, even more indirect. As I said, this is how you keep a price under control.)

One thought from today: To what degree has airport security increased the market for slip-on shoes? Lots of flip-flops on view, of course, since they seem to be the default footwear for young women, but also sandals, loafers, backless shoes — anything to save a little effort when it's time to remove your shoes in the security line.

On the viewing side, caught Monday's "The Closer" and "Saving Grace" before departing. OK "Closer," and the stuff between Jenny O'Hara and Wendy Phillips — two reliable pros — was especially amusing. Didn't hold much back in the fight scene, did they? And I wondered how closely "Closer" and "Saving Grace" look at each other's storylines, since both episodes involved detectives who had history with people in their investigations. Very good "Saving Grace," too, particularly in the way it wove in the Oklahoma City bombing, which is more than just a backdrop for the show. Loved Grace's offhand reference to still paying off the favor of getting into McVeigh's execution.

Even though I am on the road, I expect to check in here with some thoughts — and I brought along some DVDs that may prove of interest. Now if someone could just put a stop to the heat…

He'll take over June 1, with Jimmy Fallon taking over "Late Night" just before that. Release today:

Conan O'Brien, the dominant late-night host at 12:35 a.m. (ET) for the past 14 seasons, will succeed Jay Leno as host of the preeminent series on late-night television, NBC's "The Tonight Show," in June of 2009. Beginning in Spring 2009, Jimmy Fallon will step in as the "Late Night" host. The announcement was made today by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios and Marc Graboff, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" will begin on Monday, June 1, 2009 (11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET) with Leno's last "Tonight Show" telecast airing Friday, May 29, 2009.

"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" will originate from Stage 1 at Universal Studios and will be produced by Universal Media Studios. Jeff Ross is the executive producer.

Alan Sepinwall has details from the press tour about "Friday Night Lights" here.

From Sunday's Beacon Journal, some thoughts about heroes on the small and big screen here.

Big night for "Mad Men." For one account of the evening itself, go to Sepinwall's blog. Full anouncement after the jump …

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Things start Sept. 1. Details after the jump. First, the release from The CW, then the release about the shows another company is putting on the network on Sunday nights.

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Detective writer Ross Macdonald once said that his novel "The Moving Target" "is a story clearly aspiring to be a movie." And it did lead to a movie, "Harper," which is significant in the Newman catalog — but not, to modern eyes, a very good one. …

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Now I'm going to work on my deltoids of compassion.

My "Mamma Mia!" review is here.

My "Dark Knight" review is linked in a post below. It's looking more and more like a gigantic hit.

For my DVD column, I watched a movie called "Picture This" with Ashley Tisdale of "High School Musical" fame. It includes Tisdale singing "Shadows of the Night." Let's revisit Pat Benatar, shall we?

A really nutty video, but I always liked her voice.

Coming to DVD in August is a series of movies in special "I Love the '80s" editions, each with a four-song CD (although it appears that each has the SAME four-song CD). Included in the series: "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Footloose," "Top Gun" and "Pretty in Pink." When the DVDs landed on my desk today, I of course had to pause and open "Pretty in Pink" for one of The Greatest Scenes in Cinema History.

I am, of course, talking about Duckie (Jon Cryer) lip-synching to Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness." And, if I am going to relive that moment, I have to share, so here's the clip via YouTube:

Here's Mr. Otis Redding himself, with "Try." (My personal favorite Otis: "Cigarettes and Coffee.")

My review of "The Dark Knight" is now available online here.

Some notes about the mark I gave it, after the jump. One possible spoiler.

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