I’ve spoken about many of them in recent months, but I wanted to mention one more today: Sue Maxwell, the beloved wife of our old friend and late Bits contributor Barrie Maxwell, who longtime readers will know from his many Blu-ray and DVD reviews here at the site back in the day, as well as his excellent Classic Coming Attractions, The British Beat, and High-Definition Matters columns.
After Barrie passed in 2012, Sue remained a dear friend, even traveling from Canada to visit Sarah and I here in Southern California. She was adored by her family and all those who knew her, and even found love again with a kind man named Mal from her childhood. But in November, I’m sad to say that Sue lost a short but valiant battle with cancer. And she will be dearly missed.
As is always the case though, many good things have happened this past year too. We’ve shared plenty of joyous times, complete with new friends and great experiences.
Through it all, it’s been an honor to have each of you as our readers, as we’ve continued reporting on physical media news here at The Bits, reviewing the latest discs and advocating for our favorite HD and 4K disc formats within the home entertainment industry, even as it undergoes some truly seismic changes—a mission we began way back in 1997 and have continued for the last 28 years now with your support.
We really appreciate you guys—we think of you as family too. And we’ve been fortunate over those years to count many of you as friends online as well.
So as we close out 2025, we wish only the very best for you and your loved ones, both over the coming days and into 2026!
Now... as many of you are no doubt aware by now, I’m a big proponent of human spaceflight. So I couldn’t let today pass without recognizing an important moment in our shared history.
On December 24, 1968—a little over a year after I was born—NASA astronaut Bill Anders took this photograph as he orbited the Moon with his Apollo 8 crewmates: “Earthrise.”
This is Humanity as we truly are—8.1 billion crewmates on Spaceship Earth, floating in a vast Cosmos. Everything we care about, or worry about—and ever have—happens on this tiny yet resilient blue-green world, for now our only home.
So as we close out a tumultuous year, in some ways not so very different than 1968, it’s worth remembering that we owe it to ourselves, and to each other, to make this planet the best home it can be.
Happy Holidays, fellow crewmates!
We’ll see you back here on Monday. Merry Christmas!
- Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)