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Saturday, January 25, 2025

Come on, get in my boat, fish!

Yesterday Andrew made challah specifically so he could make French toast for dinner. He made some delicious fried apples to go on top (which our kids like to call "simmered fruit" because of Zelda). The whole meal was divine. 

When we were taking our little "Victory Lap" around the table, Andrew answered that "making this meal" was...something...either his F-POD or his F-Party...I can't remember which. We'll pretend that it was his F-Party.

"I celebrate making this food!" Andrew said. 

"Me, too!" Phoebe agreed. "Thank you for this yummy dinner, Daddy! It is so delicious!"

She is very quick to thank people for things. And she is very quick to praise people for things.

"Thank you for wiping my bum." 

"Thank you for handing me that crayon."

"You are very good at walking up the stairs."

"Wow! I love that picture. It is amazing!"

She is overflowing with gratitude and awe. And we love that about her.

"I wasn't fishing for compliments," Andrew said. "But thank you, Phoebe."

"She is a very easy fish to fish for, as far as fish go," Rachel observed. "Getting a compliment from her takes minimal fishing. It's like...if a fisherman sat in the middle of a lake and fish just started voluntarily jumping into his boat...it's that easy."

So naturally I started singing and grooving, "Come on get in the boat, fish! Come on get in the boat, fish, fish!"

Everyone stopped eating and stared at me. 

"Are you...having a stroke?" Andrew asked (which is apparently something we ask each other).*

"Oh, come on!" I said, specifically addressing Andrew. "You know this!"

"I do not know this."

"But...it's Homestar Runner!"

"That is Homestar Runner!" Andrew agreed, his memory sufficiently jogged.

*****

Before the days of online streaming, before YouTube took off, way back when Netflix was still mailing out physical DVDs to patrons (for real—Netflix came to our mailboxes), there was Homestar Runner

It was a website that would put up silly little flash-based videos and, honestly, I had little exposure to them prior to my time in Russia. All the girls seemed to be into Homestar Runner, and because we had limited access to English media (but I believe the videos could be downloaded?) we would watch Homestar Runner together sometimes. 

Anyway, there's this one Homestar episode about fishing called "Lures & Gigs," which is the one I was referencing:


Obviously that song lives in my head rent-free. 

We pulled up that video for the kids to watch (for cultural education) and then watched a few others, including #58: Dragon, which introduced Trogdor to the world:


The kids thought these skits were entertaining...and perhaps also a little lame...but what can I say? It was the olden days—we were hard up for entertainment!

*****

This morning Benjamin was listening to a podcast called Tales from the Stinky Dragon, a Dungeons and Dragons themed podcast, and he ran to me to tell me that the hosts referenced Trogdor!

One of them even started singing the Trogdor theme song!

"And I knew what they were talking about!" Benjamin gushed. "I understood that reference!"


So, our evening of cultural education wasn't for nothing! 

 * Did I never write about the time I started quoting Chicken Soup with Rice and Andrew asked me if I was having a stroke? He had never heard Chicken Soup with Rice, apparently, so when I went off like, "In December I will be a baubled, bangled Christmas Tree with soup bowls draped all over me..." he said with a moderate degree of concern, "Are you...having a stroke?"

2 comments:

  1. I was this many years old when I learned about Homestar Runner and Trogdor. New to me!

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    Replies
    1. It's a very silly thing—but now you know! You never know when knowledge about Trogdor might come up!

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