Q&A: 'Homecoming' available on DVD

'Homecoming' available on DVD

In the 1970s, there was a wonderful Christmas movie titled The Homecoming, starring Richard Thomas. It was the kickoff to The Waltons TV series. I've never seen it for sale with the other holiday movies. Is it available anywhere on DVD or VHS?

The movie was released on DVD about six years ago and is still available. If your local video retailer cannot get it, try online seller Amazon.com.

Originally titled The Homecoming and also known as The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, the film premiered in December 1971; it was the second adaptation of Earl Hamner Jr.'s semiautobiographical fiction, following the big-screen Spencer's Mountain in 1963. (Spencer's is also on DVD.)

While The Homecoming's cast is not the same as the TV series, it did include several future Waltons regulars, among them Richard Thomas (John-Boy), Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) and Judy Norton (Mary Ellen). But Andrew Duggan and Patricia Neal played the parents, John and Olivia Walton, in the movie, roles that were assumed by Ralph Waite and Michael Learned in the TV series. And the movie's Grandpa Walton was Edgar Bergen (a famed ventriloquist and father of actor Candice Bergen), while Will Geer had the role on TV.

Sextillion has 21 zeroes

I read an article about the most distant object in the universe that could be seen by the naked eye. It was an exploding star 7.5 billion light years away. The article also said a light year is 5.9 trillion miles. When I multiply that, I get a number with 21 zeroes. Can math or science describe a number that immense?

You're right about the number of zeroes, but the distance from us is even more complicated.

According to Robert Naeye of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, when the star blew up 7.5 billion years ago, the universe, which is still expanding, was much smaller. The star wasn't really closer to Earth at that time, because there was no Earth yet. Now, there's an Earth, but the star is gone. Our galaxy and the explosion's host galaxy were closer than 7.5 billion light-years at the time of the explosion but now are farther apart. That distance is "unbelievably far away," and those of us who aren't Stephen Hawking can't really comprehend it.

As for the word for 21 zeroes, it's sextillion. For a good primer on very large numbers, go to www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html.

Medical term has Latin roots

I work in the medical field and we use the term "stat" to mean "do it now." Where does this term come from?

Like many medical terms, it has a Latin origin. "Stat" is short for statim, which means immediately, or at once.