"14"

With warmer weather, our thoughts naturally turn to travel. We recall past excursions that helped form us and fantasize about adventures yet to come. Since Homer penned “The Odyssey” in the eighth century B.C., journeys have inspired a wealth of literature and art. Often a mission or quest is involved, though it may not be a conscious one. Quite often, voyages of discovery only reveal themselves after the fact.

One way to mitigate the inevitable letdown of fading summer is to look ahead to fall sports. This hit me when I walked into a bar the other night and caught sight of those familiar royal blue Giants jerseys on TV. Yes, pre-season is here, and you can almost feel those cool autumn breezes.

Career advice can come from any quarter. Sometimes it’s the guy who sells you the newspaper. Other times it’s a chance encounter with a titan of industry. But there is no guidance likely to make a deeper impression than that given by our proxies on the screen.

For those of us who are not international polo stars, or Keith Richards, travel can be a challenge during the Polar Vortex. But on film, it can be any season one wants it to be, so let’s get away from the snow, the ice, and freezing rain, and take a much-needed trip with these cinematic snowbirds.

No matter which team you rooted for, the aftermath of the Super Bowl is bound to be emotional, so it’s a good idea to have a soothing movie to segue into once the final whistle blows.

The counterintuitive romance is one in which two people who truly shouldn’t fall in love do, often under extraordinary and unromantic circumstances. Most often, these relationships run slim odds of ending with wedding bells. Too young, too old, too uninterested in social acceptance, the protagonists of these love stories breathe the same thin air as anti-heroes and outsiders; they are, in short, unidealized and identifiably human.

With Martin Luther King’s birthday past us, and Black History month coming up, the time is right to celebrate those invaluable films that shed light on the black community’s long struggle for equal rights in this country.

Love it or hate it: our system of justice is a large part of what keeps anarchy at bay — and us safe. Deny that if you will. Still, there’s plenty to question and complain about. Like so many of our institutions, sometimes it works, too often it doesn’t. But no one yet has found a better model.

Wouldn’t life be brighter if this comic genius hadn’t left us so soon? It seems incredible that we lost him nearly 35 years ago, due to a weak heart further compromised by the stress of work, celebrity, and various personal upheavals.