I swear, I wasn't losing it, but I was treated like I was.
My niece greeted me with a big hug and then shoved a flexy rubber Spider-Man (take that, Lee Barnett!) into my hand with the question 'Where does he come from?'. And as I gazed fondly at my childhood toy, I started to tell her, in my kindly uncle voice. 'Well, he comes from my favourite place in the whole world, a big, big city a long way away in America called New York. And he helps people. He can climb walls', (and I pushed him against the wall and made climby motions upwards(, 'and he can fire spiders webs from his wrists', (and I bent my wrist backwards and made 'psssh' type noises), 'and he can swing between buildings' (and I mimed him swing across the sky) 'and, best of all, he will always keep you safe at night'.

And I passed my Spider-Man back to her, satisfied that I was a good uncle and that she would love me very much.

She looked at me. She looked at the toy. She looked back at me. And impatiently said...


...'NO! Where does he come from, you or Daddy?'
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 22 Jul 2011, 17:15, Reply)