The PopCulteer
December 9, 2011
This week’s PopCulteer sees the beginning of our annual PopCult gift guide. For the next two weeks you can hit up this blog for a daily gift recommendation. We’ll point you to books, CDs, toys, and all sorts of bizarre novelty items, all designed to thrill and delight the Pop Culture devotee on your Christmas list. We’ve also got several local fundraising efforts to tell you about, so let’s get on with it…
The PopCult Gift Guide Day One:
Mail-Order Mysteries
by Kirk DeMarais
There are some people who believe that, when you die, every question that you’ve ever had in your life will be answered. Thanks to Kirk DeMarais you won’t have to wait that long for answers to some of the most pressing questions.
This book answers all of life's most important questions
Mail-Order Mysteries is a pretty comprehensive look at all the stuff they used to sell in cheesy ads in comic books. DeMarais has spent years scouring eBay to track down all the cheap, crappy toys, bodybuilding and karate books, rubber masks and other dubious wonders that were so tempting to kids who didn’t know any better way back then.
Of course, when you were a kid, you didn’t have enough money to send seven bucks in so that you could buy a Nuclear Submarine. Hell, it was tough to scrape up a dollar for a “Monster Size Monster.” If you asked your folks they’d tell you it was a rip-off and say “no.”
Admit it, since then you’ve been wondering. How different would your life have been if only you had a six-foot tall Frankenstein? Would ordering from the Johnson Smith catalog make you the coolest kid in school? Would you be wealthy now if you’d been able to get “1,001 Things Free?” Could you have taken a Sea Monkey to the prom? Continue reading
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