The PopCulteer
May 28, 2021

I had planned to write a long PopCulteer essay here about why I barely read my timeline on Facebook anymore. In short, I have a lot of conservative friends, and it appears that many of them believe that President Biden was not legitimately elected, and also that anyone who gets a COVID vaccine is a chump who’s being shot full of mind-control magnets.

It’s really heartbreaking to learn that so many of my Facebook friends are complete idiots. The truth is, I hop on Facebook in the morning and share links to this blog. Then I check my notifications and private messages, and hop off without even glancing at my timeline. It’s been like this for nearly a year. There was just too much idiocy swirling about in the place. I’ve missed out on a lot of stuff, but I spare myself a lot of sadness. I can’t believe that there are people that profoundly stupid who are still able to operate a Facebook page.

Their stupidity makes me angry, and that would have made for a less-than-entertaining essay for you.

So instead, I’m going to tell you about some cool things that I will be doing now that I’m fully vaccinated. I’m not completely out of the woods yet because I’m waiting for the results of an antibody test to make sure the vaccine worked on me, but this weekend I’m going out of town for the first time in a long time.

I’m making a trip near Pittsburgh to see my sister, niece and nephew for the first time in well over a year, and I’ll also be meeting my grand-nephew for the first time. After that, Mrs. PopCulteer and I will be heading to Weirton, where we’ve never been, to take photos of a rare military tank for my friend, Dave Mattson, who will use them on his website devoted to tanks. I’ll post a link and tell you more about Dave’s website when I know it’s up and running.  Now you know why that image is at the top of this post. I hope to get better angles of the tank when I go there.

Along the way, and on the way home we’ll do some shopping, masked up of course, and grab some drive-thru food to keep us going. It’s going to be a much-needed change of scenery.

That’s not the end of our travel plans. Pending the results of my antibody test, we plan to go to Louisville at the end of next week to take in a day of WonderFest USA.  This will be our first trip to WonderFest since 2017, and I’m really looking forward to eye candy that awaits us in the model contest room.

Two weeks later, we’re heading to Wheeling for The Marx Toy Convention at the Kruger Street Toy & Train Musuem…again for just one day.  You’re going to see plenty of coverage of those events, before and after, here in PopCult.

At some point in the next few weeks, I’m going to attempt to catch up with The Swivel Rockers at one of their many upcoming outdoor shows, so I can get some more video for a special episode of Radio Free Charleston devoted to the band. I’ll keep you posted on those, too.

It seems like I’ve loaded up June with tons of trips and cool stuff, but I’m still taking baby steps. Even vaccinated, I plan to wear my mask around people. I would rather err on the side of caution, and I’ve also found that masks take the edge off of allergy season. Pollen is considerably larger than COVID, you know. I have to say, it’s more than a little disheartening to see so much contempt being expressed for the concept of erring on the side of caution.  A mask never killed anybody. COVID did.

I do not feel that we are, in any way, out of the woods with COVID. I doubt that I’ll feel comfortable eating IN a restaurant until next year.  If WonderFest or the Marx Toy Convention seem too crowded, I’ll step back, and may cut my visits short. It’s great to have the many added layers of protection that the vaccine offers, but we still have to be careful.

I would consider myself “cautiously optimistic.” I feel that it’s a wiser approach than being recklessly optimistic.

I will, however, go so far as to say that we are headed in the right direction.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Trust me, it’s way more pleasant that what I had planned to write here. Please remember that Friday afternoon on The AIR we are replaying last week’s episodes of MIRRORBALL and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat that I told you about HERE.

We had some technical issues last week, and those shows did not air in their entirety. Also, check back for our regular features and stick around to listen to The AIR for a marathon of Radio Free Charleston that begins Friday at 7 PM and runs all the way until Tuesday afternoon, pausing only for the Sunday overnight marathon of The Swing Shift. Listen at the website, or on that embedded player elsewhere on this page, if you are so inclined.

And please stay safe this weekend.