When it comes to the intersection between pop culture and spirituality (which sometimes means Judaism, specifically), my posts at Idol Chatter on Beliefnet run the gamut: from TV to music, from books to movies, from the Holocaust to the Family Guy to ABBA. Seriously.

After my making a case in October for Don Draper being a vampire, November brought a slew of varied stories. Ian McKellen started ripping pages out of hotel Bibles, Comedy Central expanded to Abu Dhabi, and that “Family Guy” live special offended lots of people. Reading and watching movies about Anne Frank - and presenting on Jewish pop culture at a local high school - led to both reviews and contemplations of what constitutes teen theology. The Macaroons, a new kids’ band, brought catchy rock hooks to Jewish subjects, just in time for Hanukkah.

In December, ABBA was named to the list of future inductees for the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, leading people to say, “um, is ABBA really rock?” But forget Swedish pop music and senatorial musical submissions: what’s new with Jewish music this Hanukkah? The NY Times did a short piece, but I had a few suggestions of my own. Also, in the wake of Orrin Hatch’s musical Hanukkah present to the Jews, Conan’s Jewish cast member - Max Weinberg - sang back with a Christmas song for Mormons set to “I Have a Little Dreidel.” Meantime, those creative folks over at G-dcast created a special animated episode for Hanukkah.

And just yesterday, Roy Disney died, reminding everyone how much of an impact Disney has had on the cultural landscape.

Over the past few months, pop culturistas like me lost pieces of our cultural childhoods one at a time, each one adding to the devastation: no sooner were we moving past Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, that we lost writer/director John Hughes and dancer/actor/not putting Baby in a cornerer Patrick Swayze. Hughes and Swayze, were two linchpins of my cultural adolescence, sculpting the landscape of expectation for me and countless others in my generation, as we moved forward into an uncertain future.

John Hughes went first, in August, and I thought in movie quotes for days. “Demented and sad, but social.” “Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?” And of course, every single line from my beloved mantra of a movie, “Sixteen Candles.” (”Jake Ryan? But he’s a senior, and he’s taken…I mean, REALLY taken.”) But I felt I had to write about him: this post at Beliefnet’s Idol Chatter is the result.

Then we lost Swayze, and I didn’t have the energy to plumb my own depths for reactions: instead, I went to social media, relying on Facebook status updates and Twitter messages to express the collective sense of mourning.

These pieces were sad to write, but as a writer, I appreciate the opportunity to mourn with thousands of others, virtually, through words, over the internet, because together, we are a community of the affected - in our union over a career’s end, we celebrate the work of the artists and their undeniable impact.