12:58:13 pm on
Sunday 29 Dec 2024

Scooby Science
AJ Robinson

I’m old enough to remember when Scooby-Doo made his first appearance on television. Oh, I well remember that show; it was so awesome. I loved it and would wait anxiously for each new episode every Saturday morning.

I would have binged-watched Scooby-Doo.

If binge watching had been available when I was a child, I would have watched the entire season, of Scooby-Doo, in a single sitting. Scooby had everything going for him: cool friends, a killer van, and they got to solve mysteries every week.

Oh, and there was always a musical montage. What could be better? It was all I wanted and needed, back then.

I did start to wonder why Fred and Daphne always went off together. Back then I was too young and too innocent to think anything inappropriate was going on. The underlying inference of drug use also slipped by me.

Two lessons came out of that show for me. One was always look for clues to solve any mystery. Initially, when I was quite young, I never stood a chance of figuring things out. As time passed, I became better and many times I had the answer before the big reveal.

Two, I learned that the worst monsters in life were people. That was a big difference from other shows of the era. There was another, a clear copycat, called Goober and the Ghost Chasers, which found real ghosts, but, in the end, they never had any confirmation.

Not with Scooby. He and the gang occasionally found something mysterious and unexplained. Most of the ghosts, ghouls, monsters and other creatures of the night he found turned out to be a man in a suit.

These days, as I deal with COVID-19, I see both the lessons of Scooby taught. It and it makes me sad. All the clues are right there for anyone to see.

If you are immunized, you’re safe. Yes, the vaccine was fast-tracked and there have been a few bad reactions. Overall, the vaccine is working and there’s nothing wrong with giving credit where credit is due.

Ex-president screwed-up vaccine role out, badly.

The Trump Administration did a great job with vaccine development. They screwed up the rollout. Biden handled that, with elan.

It really should be renamed the Trump Vaccine, which would get the Great Orange telling everyone how great it is and that they should take it. Unfortunately, cases are once again climbing. I keep hearing reports of how ninety to ninety-five percent of new cases are among the unvaccinated.

People, what does it take to get through to you? Get vaccinated. I know there’s misinformation everywhere, but my response to that is a simple: don’t believe it.

Yes, I know that’s simplistic, but when you consider the sources of the anti-vaxx movement, I wonder of the people who believe that swill. You do know that all those people telling you not to get vaccinated have been vaccinated themselves, right? These wild conspiracy theories they’re tossing around, do any of them make any sense?

The government putting a chip in you to track your location. Why bother? Between your cell phone, Facebook posts and twitter, we all know where everyone else is, at most any given moment.

The vaccine hasn’t been adequately tested. Well, there you got me, it was, as I said, fast-tracked. Given how well it’s working out, I think it’s safe. It’s certainly better than facing the prospect of being on a vent in the ICU.

We could use more truth these days.

That leads me to my second point: people are the worst monsters. Yes, that’s made clear every day when I see these anti-vaxxers peddling their unending lies and all in their quest to make a dollar to build themselves up. That’s truly sad, and it’s times like these when I wish Scooby and the gang could step in to resolve things like they always did; set a trap for the monster, catch them and reveal the truth.

Combining the gimlet-eye of Philip Roth with the precisive mind of Lionel Trilling, AJ Robinson writes about what goes bump in the mind, of 21st century adults. Raised in Boston, with summers on Martha's Vineyard, AJ now lives in Florida. Working, again, as an engineeer, after years out of the field due to 2009 recession and slow recovery, Robinson finds time to write. His liberal, note the small "l," sensibilities often lead to bouts of righteous indignation, well focused and true. His teen vampire adventure novel, "Vampire Vendetta," will publish in 2020. Robinson continues to write books, screenplays and teleplays and keeps hoping for that big break.

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