I've been watching a lot of Iron Chef -- god, TiVo is a wonderful thing -- and I've noticed that Chairman Kaga starts off every episode with "If my memory serves me correctly...."

So here's a question for any Japanese speakers out there: Is that the Japanese equivilent of "Once upon a time" or "In my day" or something to indicate that a story is starting? Or is it just a stylistic quirk about the way he talks?

And I still haven't heard from anyone who understands Mandarin and watches Firefly. Help me out here, people....