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Sunday 4th February 2024

7728/20669
Anyone in doubt that Herring bridge was named after me rather than a fish will have to bow down their head in worship to me today, as the bridge has been swearing.  QED, question effectively demonstrated.
Sorry to see their are technical difficulties with the erection though - again proof, if proof be needsbe that it's my bridge. Though only anticipated those affecting the bridge at around 50 years. Before that I assumed they'd have an issue keeping the thing down.
A quiet and restful Sunday at the Herring house, aside from a trip up to the blustery rec in the afternoon to play football with Phoebe and to let Ernie have a skateboard. There were a lot of kids down there so we ended up playing on the basketball court and then against a container. The kids on the football pitch were young. No older than 10. But I am sure one of them said "Moon on a stick" when they saw me. It might have been a weird coincidence - it sort of has to be, doesn't it? - though maybe one of their parents/grandparents had said - that's the moon on a stick guy and the moon on a stick had stuck in their mind. Maybe it was a Goodnight Sweetheart situation and I'd temporarily been sucked off back to thirty years ago. But then surely that kid wouldn't recognise the old gnarled me, even if he was allowed to stay up til 9.30pm on a Thursday.
It doesn't happen very much, if ever, these days. So strange to hear it from the mouth of a babe.
I looked over at the kid who I thought had said it and they were looking me in the eye as if to say, "You heard me." I left it. The catchphrase was three times older than him (and that's just from our usage of it - we didn't make it up). So many comedy catchphrases have been born and died in that time. It's amazing that one from an outlier of a 1990s comedy show still crops up every now and again.
But I still say "Let's get this road on the show" on a weekly basis, which comes from a 1990s advert for a product I have forgotten. And say "Of course you can Malcolm" to my wife and kids, none of whom are old enough to understand the reference. The catchphrase that survives beyond its inception to be passed on to future generations who have no idea of its provenance is the most successful catchphrase in my opinion.
If moon on a stick wasn't one of mine then Ally would definitely nick it for Twitch of Fun. He still might.



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