Two stories, one song

Story No. 1: My co-workers at The Sanford Herald and I are a bit obsessed with cake. Years ago, I self-appointed myself the newsroom “social coordinator,” a capacity that requires me to make sure everyone gets a cake (or some other gift) on their birthday. And when I alert my co-workers that a birthday is coming up, we start collectively salivating about the sweet treat that we know is about to come.

On Thursday, we marked the birthday of our news editor, Kevin, with a caramel truffle ice cream cake (the cookie crust makes this one). And then today, his aunt surprised him with a second cake, along with a box of other bakery goodies, which he graciously shared with the newsroom.

Needless to say, everyone’s springtime diets went to the wayside. And we stuffed our faces with cake.

Story No. 2: This week, my 5-year-old daughter discovered the wonder known as YouTube. She somehow navigated her way there from the Justin Roberts Web site, where she and her brother were watching music videos. Next thing I knew, my Internet-savvy preschooler (under my watchful eye, of course) was searching for her favorite musicians, and together we discovered a whole slew of videos from They Might Be Giants.

If you’re my age, you might remember TMBG from such songs as “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” and “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” But they also perform a slew of TV theme songs, including the intros to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Malcolm in the Middle” and Playhouse Disney shows like “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and “Higglytown Heros.” And they’ve recorded three children’s albums, two of which we own: 2002’s “No!” and this year’s “Here Come the 123s,” which is in our current daily-commute rotation (I would highly recommend this CD to any parent of a preschooler – the tunes are smart, catchy and brimming with humor).

Tonight, we ended up watching nearly an hour of TMBG clips, which leads me to the song …

One of the videos was for “Seven,” which, like most TMBG tunes, is a bit off the wall. It tells of a slew of 7s that show up at a house, all demanding cake.

“We want cake! Where’s our cake?” they chant.

And I had to smile as work and home came together in a song.

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