News of the Week: Summertime Blues, New Blu-rays, and 50 Years of a Shark Named Bruce

It Begins

“I live for summer.”

– Sandra Boynton

I’m guessing Boynton has air conditioning.

Summer begins tonight at exactly 10:42 p.m. ET, so you still have plenty of time to go out and get your balloons and streamers and bags of Doritos. Don’t invite me to the party, though. As the world’s number one hater of summer (TM), I’ll be grumbling in my apartment, drinking an ice-cold beverage, one of only two things I actually like about this season (the other being lots of tennis on television).

But it’s okay. Starting on July 1 we start losing a minute or so of daylight every single day! Before you know it, it will be Labor Day and I’ll be smiling again.

Detectives, Cowboys, and Looney Tunes

I regularly list new books that are coming out, but I haven’t done a list of new classic Blu-rays (some of them available on regular old DVDs too) in quite some time. Here are several that are either out this month or will be released this summer.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXVI. This Blu-ray set from Kino Lorber has three films you might not know about: Dr. Broadway (Anthony Mann’s first directorial effort), Smooth as Silk, and The Great Gatsby (with Alan Ladd).

Shane. This new remastered version of the classic western is from Kino Lorber, too.

Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault, Vol. 1. Honestly, there are a ton of these Looney Tunes cartoon collections and it can get confusing. Then again, it’s Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig and Tweety so you really can’t go wrong.

Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series. Now on Blu-ray. All 12 seasons, on 62 (!) discs.

Sean Connery 6-Film 007 Collection. This new Ultra 4K Blu-ray has all of his James Bond films, which, let’s face it, include some of the best Bond films.

Warner Archive has new Blu-rays of High Society, His Kind of Woman (a fantastic noir with Robert Mitchum, Raymond Burr, and Vincent Price, who steals the picture), and A Date with Judy.

Jaws at 50

There’s another new Blu-ray out (in Ultra 4K HD), the 50th anniversary edition of Jaws, the 1975 movie that made us all afraid to go into the water. It has new documentary features, deleted scenes, outtakes, storyboards, production photos, and a 50-year retrospective look at the legacy of the Steven Spielberg thriller.

I can’t swim anyway, so you can imagine how much the water and Jaws terrified me as a ten-year-old. Then again, maybe it’s good I can’t swim. Being close to sharks is something I’ll ever experience.

250 Years of the U.S. Army

Here’s CBS’s David Martin on its beginnings.

Uploaded to YouTube by CBS Sunday Morning

RIP Anne Burrell, Harris Yulin, William Langewiesche, Leonard Lauder, Nina Kuscsik, Beans Morocco, and Betsy Jochum

Anne Burrell was a chef and a longtime host/judge on various Food Network shows. She died Tuesday at the age of 55.

Harris Yulin was a character actor who appeared in such shows as Ozark, 24, Veep, and Frasier, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He was also in movies like Scarface, The Missiles of October, Ghostbusters II, and Night Moves. He also acted on Broadway. He died last week at the age of 87.

William Langewiesche was an acclaimed journalist and pilot who wrote for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. He also wrote several books. He died Sunday at the age of 70.

Leonard Lauder helped his mother Estée Lauder create a multi-billion-dollar cosmetics empire. He died Saturday at the age of 92.

Nina Kuscsik was the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon and the first woman to enter the New York City Marathon. She died earlier this month at the age of 86.

Beans Morocco – sometimes credited under his birth name, Dan Barrows – was a character actor who appeared in such films as Used Cars, Eating Raoul, and Once Bitten, as well as TV shows like Growing Pains, Scrubs, Matlock, and Star Trek: Voyager. He died in May at the age of 90.

Betsy Jochum was the last surviving member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was the inspiration for the film A League of Their Own. She died in May at the age of 104.

This Week in History

Disneyland Monorail Opens (June 14, 1959)

Here’s Troy Brownfield on the history of the Train to Tomorrowland.

George Mallory Born (June 18, 1886)

Mallory was an explorer and mountain climber known as the man who answered “Because it’s there” when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. He died on Everest in June of 1924. His preserved body was found during an expedition in 1999.

This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Sealtest Ice Cream (June 17, 1950)

Summertime is ice cream time.

Today Is National Ice Cream Soda Day

And since it’s the time for ice cream, it’s also the time for ice cream sodas.

Food Network has a recipe for The Best Ice Cream Soda You’ll Ever Sip Through a Straw, while Serious Eats has this Vanilla Ice Cream Soda recipe. Martha Stewart shows you how to make a Cherry Ice Cream Soda, The Kitchn has an Italian Cream Soda, and here’s a recipe for a Strawberry Cream Soda from What Steve Eats.

To throw you a change up, here’s a Root Beer Float from Simply Recipes (and here’s the difference between an ice cream soda and a float).

While we’re on the subject, Taste of Home has a list of the best soda fountains in the U.S., and Country Living has a nice list too.

One of these days I’m going to go on a road trip and visit various soda fountains.

Next Week’s Holidays and Events

National Selfie Day (June 21)

For many people, this is every day.

Sunglasses Day (June 27)

Since summer has started, you can wear them on the beach during the day, or maybe even at night.