“Bart, did you read the book?” – Mrs. Krabappel
“Mrs. Krabappel, I am insulted.  Is this a book report or a witch hunt?” – Bart Simpson

This week’s Reading Digest is extremely abbreviated.  20th Anniversary stuff ate up a lot of time and the internet slows for no man, event or excuse.  Uh, enjoy.

25 Homer Simpson quotes to guide you to a successful career – Most of these are good.

Howdy Doodily Readerinos – Sweet Ned Flanders costume (via My Disguises).

Homer Simpson speed painting – Neat video of someone drawing a detailed Homer head.  I could’ve done without the Lady Gaga, but other than that it’s neat. 

FSU professor motivates students with technology – This guy built a computer out of four PlayStation3s, the nodes names are Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa. 

Why "The Simpsons" no longer matters – Salon.com interviewed John Ortved and it’s one of the more original of the recent publicity things I’ve seen him do.  To wit this, which I had not heard him say before:

Would you choose to pull the plug on the show if you could?

I think "The Simpsons" has always been a product of News Corp., and the decision to pull the plug will be when the show becomes unprofitable. They could do things to revamp it. There’s really two rooms working on the show: One room is [executive producer] Al Jean and his yes men, and the other room has the younger, hipper comedians. [The second room] sends jokes to the first room, and all their good stuff gets written out of it. I think if they were to save the show, they would need to get rid of the show runner and really shake up the writing room. I don’t know if they’ll ever get it back to the level they had, but they could start making great episodes again.

I’m not entirely sure what to think about that but my initial reaction is that it’s wishful thinking.  Ortved certainly knows a lot more about the current inner workings of the show than I do, so I’m not disputing what he says about the structure or there really being two camps of writers.  However, no matter how massive a behind the scenes shakeup they’d still be working under two decades of old episodes using characters that are really no longer of our time.  Adding a few genuinely witty lines to each episode isn’t going to bring back the old viewers, nor will it cause Zombie Simpson fans to praise it any harder. 

Of course, even entertaining this hypothetical ignores the fact that the quality of the show has no effect on its profitability.  FOX would never risk a radical shakeup because the current incarnation still makes money for them hand over fist.