Observation — 1975, Wonderfully Silly In A Seriously Transitional Year

President Gerald Ford barely escaped assassination.  Watergate continued to implode with the convictions of former Nixon boys — Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell. Cambodia fell to Pol Pot. Saigon was on its way to become Ho Chi Minh City.  Elton John, The Bee Gees and David Bowie seemed to dominate the music scene.  Paul McCartney formed the group, Wings. Captain & Tennile’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” and Glenn Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” topped the Billboard charts. Top movies:  Jaws, One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Salo, Or The 100 Days of Sodom, and Dog Day Afternoon. Peter's Pence, by John Cleary, picked up the Edgar for best mystery from the Mystery Writers of America. Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers, Judith Rossner’s steamy Looking For Mr. Goodbar, E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime and Agatha Christie’s Curtain (Poirot’s last case) were the year’s best selling books. Angelie Jolie and Bradley Cooper entered the world, Chiang Kai-shek, and Pier Paolo Pasolini left it, as did the demonic Spanish dictator, Franco.  Union boss Jimmy Hoffa went missing.  The words “Corinthian leather” entered our lexicon. If you were around, what were you doing during the year of the wood rabbit?