A Fishy Fact

“Tell us your amazing facts,” challenged Downsy, the stand in (and remarkably good) radio presenter on my local radio station‘s breakfast show. I bristled with excitement. A few years ago, during my tender student “placement year” where I worked with Sun Microsystems, the spare time was devoted to emails, particularly jokes and a supreme Fact Focus. Every weekly release of Fact Focus, bristling full of random, useless and downright obscure facts, was a work of art. During the height of its success, 104 people signed up to receive the thing, a fact that puffed my chest in geek pride.
And now was the time to unleash on Surrey and Horth-East Hampshire my very favourite fact – a fact told to me by Chris H, a colleague at Sun. It is a fact that rises above all other, and I was sure that this little gem would get the airtime it deserved. I pulled over at the nearest layby just past Guildford, and texted my prized fact to the number they gave.
Just two minutes later, the DJ cut into a song with a few more facts that had been texted in. “And finally, the prize fact”, he announced. “Did you know,” – a smile prematurely spread across my face – “that St John’s Wood is the only tube station not to contain any of the letters of the word ‘mackerel'”. And with this, he dissolved in fits of giggles.
I was officially a font of useless knowledge. I was *proud*. I was even more proud when I found that the moment had been selected as a highlight of the show, and was repeated several times today.
And I can tell, underneath the sheer embarrassment, that Michelle was equally proud when her office radio announced my fact regularly throughout the day to her colleagues. She’s a lucky girl, I tell you.