Call me sentimental, but some tunes really send me reeling. And nobody—I mean nobody—does it any better than Barbra Streisand. Her rendition of “The Way We Were” is pretty close to the ultimate in my book. Remember the words? “Memories . . . light the corners of my mind . . . .”

It was in 1968 on an airplane headed for New York—a routine and normally very boring flight. But this time it proved to be otherwise. As the plane was on its descent pattern, the pilot realized that the landing gear was not engaging. Passengers were told to place their heads between their knees and grab their ankles just before impact.