So I Googled myself the other night. There, I admit it – don’t act like you’ve never done it before! It’s not like I needed the ego aggrandizement or anything, though I have to admit there is some feeling of personal validation in knowing that something you’ve done is a matter of official record somewhere, even if it is just the Internet. It was more a matter of curiosity. Well, that’s my official line, at least.

Anyway, I discovered that apart from the Marty O’Kane who is me, there is Marty O’Kane the Irish footballer, Marty (or, I should say, Martin) O’Kane the doctor of theology, and, most distressingly, Marty O’Kane the recently deceased.

But the most interesting thing I came across was this Spiraling web site made by one of our fans in Germany. Take that, Otto von Bismarck! You may have unified a multitude of loosely organized principalities into the modern German state, but did your countrymen see fit to reward you with your own web site? No! All you have is a crappy Wikipedia entry. And nowadays everybody has one of those.

Here’s what the Germans have to say about us:

Es gibt Gerüchte, dass Spiraling in absehbarer Zeit auch endlich in Europa und vielleicht sogar in Deutschland zu sehen sind. Sobald es Neuigkeiten dazu gibt, halte ich euch auf dem Laufenden!

Now, I can’t read German, but from what I can gather, they’re asking for more photos of me and Bob posing with members of The Doobie Brothers and/or Steely Dan.

Here’s looking at you, Deustchland!