Grushenka
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Posts
- 516
I receive some pretty boring mail (paper and e-) on the job, but the latest edition of news from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography had me smiling large. I must admit I don't 'get' some of the humor involved in the choices, but I love Marge as Dusty, a pop idol of my youth. Perhaps some of our UK friends can comment on the substitutions of Simpsonses.
The Simpsons
19 April marks the twentieth anniversary of the first appearance on television of the characters who star in what is possibly the greatest television series ever; arguably the greatest situation comedy; and certainly the greatest cartoon: the Simpsons.
Our sibling dictionary, the OED, has long since acknowledged the importance of the Simpsons. They are cited fifteen times in the OED (svv eg nerts, nuh-uh, num, and, of course, doh). But we have hitherto neglected them. The anniversary is an opportunity to for us to redress this. If the Simpsons didn't exist, it would be necessary for us to invent … the Simpsons, recast from the Oxford DNB.
There are already sixty Simpsons in the ODNB. Two have recognizably Homeric features. Fat and lazy, Homer would have approved of Simeon Simpson's invention of the 'adjustable self-supporting trouser, obviating the need for belts or braces'. And Edward Simpson shares Homer's eye for a fast and easy buck. He made his living forging stone age tools and selling them to credulous archaeologists. Marge would have disapproved. We have, of course, our own American Mrs Simpson. Frederick Simpson might be an eccentric uncle. And precocious Evelyn Simpson, like Lisa, awed her school fellows with her learning.
But there's no reason that we should only cast Simpsons as Simpsons. So, our choice for the ODNB Simpsons is: [the site has pics: ODNB Magazine ]
Homer Simpson: As an amiable modern Everyman, he is hard to find in the pages of the ODNB. He is Quixotic, like William Martin; he looks, unhappily, a bit like Dr Crippen, but we choose a man who, like Homer, never wrote a great novel; whose genius, like Homer's, lay in failure; a man notable for his 'greed, his sloth, his gourmandizing, his inconsistency and melancholy': Cyril Connolly. (This may surprise you.)
Marge Simpson: No one ever takes Marge seriously enough. Nor do we. So, Dusty Springfield: another famous beehive haircut, and eponym of the Simpsons' home town.
Bart we see as a rebel who will achieve greatness. Verbal and mischievous, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Lisa, on the other hand, will become less politicized as she grows older, realizing that her happiness lies in her saxophone: Ivy Benson.
And finally Maggie, the most eternally youthful of the family, perpetually the wide-eyed observer of the follies of the others. Margaret, better known as Daisy Ashford.
The Simpsons
19 April marks the twentieth anniversary of the first appearance on television of the characters who star in what is possibly the greatest television series ever; arguably the greatest situation comedy; and certainly the greatest cartoon: the Simpsons.
Our sibling dictionary, the OED, has long since acknowledged the importance of the Simpsons. They are cited fifteen times in the OED (svv eg nerts, nuh-uh, num, and, of course, doh). But we have hitherto neglected them. The anniversary is an opportunity to for us to redress this. If the Simpsons didn't exist, it would be necessary for us to invent … the Simpsons, recast from the Oxford DNB.
There are already sixty Simpsons in the ODNB. Two have recognizably Homeric features. Fat and lazy, Homer would have approved of Simeon Simpson's invention of the 'adjustable self-supporting trouser, obviating the need for belts or braces'. And Edward Simpson shares Homer's eye for a fast and easy buck. He made his living forging stone age tools and selling them to credulous archaeologists. Marge would have disapproved. We have, of course, our own American Mrs Simpson. Frederick Simpson might be an eccentric uncle. And precocious Evelyn Simpson, like Lisa, awed her school fellows with her learning.
But there's no reason that we should only cast Simpsons as Simpsons. So, our choice for the ODNB Simpsons is: [the site has pics: ODNB Magazine ]
Homer Simpson: As an amiable modern Everyman, he is hard to find in the pages of the ODNB. He is Quixotic, like William Martin; he looks, unhappily, a bit like Dr Crippen, but we choose a man who, like Homer, never wrote a great novel; whose genius, like Homer's, lay in failure; a man notable for his 'greed, his sloth, his gourmandizing, his inconsistency and melancholy': Cyril Connolly. (This may surprise you.)
Marge Simpson: No one ever takes Marge seriously enough. Nor do we. So, Dusty Springfield: another famous beehive haircut, and eponym of the Simpsons' home town.
Bart we see as a rebel who will achieve greatness. Verbal and mischievous, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Lisa, on the other hand, will become less politicized as she grows older, realizing that her happiness lies in her saxophone: Ivy Benson.
And finally Maggie, the most eternally youthful of the family, perpetually the wide-eyed observer of the follies of the others. Margaret, better known as Daisy Ashford.
Holy cow, man!
