I was at a friend’s shed tonight — she gets the girls together every so often to make crafty stuff and drink wine and chit chat—and the woman sitting next to me said the most extraordinary thing.
She said, “I’m so sick of that song on the radio, that 100 Million Fireflies or whatever it is, have you heard that?”
I blinked a couple of times. “100,000?” I asked her. She nodded. “Fireflies?” Nodding.
“Magnetic Fields?”
Now she looked a little blank. “I don’t know who it’s by. The kids love it.”
“Twee voice?” I asked, warbling winily. “I went uuuup to the forest and caaaaawt 100,000 fireflies—”
“Yes!” she spat. “That’s the song! I’m sick of it.”
“It’s…on the radio? Often? Surely not.”
“All. The. Time.”
I had to come home and do some Googling, and no, it’s not Magnetic Fields. It’s some guy going by the name Owl City, and it’s not 100,000 fireflies, it’s 10 million of them. And it’s twee all right, very very twee, and not in a good way. (And I’m sure there’s a punchline in here somewhere about my singing something almost completely unrelated sounding exactly like it, but I’ll plead self-incrimination and just go to bed.)
