This is pretty relevant, as nowadays Lehrer’s joke apparently needs explaining. In “New Math,” he sings as quickly as possible to explain a math problem in a deliberately obfuscatory way, in order to make fun of New Math. But if you watch a video of the problem, all he’s doing (for base 10, anyway) is the borrowing method, the one that GenXers all grew up with. The “reveal” is because they sympathize with the singer about how confusing newfangled things are without listening closely enough to realize how traditional they are.
New Math didn’t improve understanding and it decimated basic arithmetic skills. And “trying to improve” is not necessarily the same as actually improving. To avoid further discussion of this subject in this thread, here’s the discussion from 4 years ago. Explain this ‘new math’
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I’ve participated in umpty-ump threads over the years correcting misconceptions about Common Core. I read that whole thread you linked to. You had one post in it making the same uncited claim you make above. Somehow I missed that thread when it happened; but in my many years in the classroom, I’ve yet to see any evidence to support your assertion about a negative cause-and-effect relationship between New Math (or Common Core) and basic arithmetic skills. If you’d like to start a new thread where you defend that assertion, I’m so there .
For the record, I’m a pretty adventurous eater. I once tried anchovy pizza, just because I never had before. Usually, when I try “outrageous” things I’ve never had before, I end up liking them, or at least finding them decent.
I couldn’t finish more than one bite of that pizza, because it tasted terrible.
Early episodes of The Simpsons are full of 70’s references, so that doesn’t surprise me. But are you sure they meant the obscure 70’s TV series and not the well known 1950’s Audrey Hepburn /Gregory Peck movie?
This is another of the attractions of a pineapple/anchovy pizza. In a share house, chances are some of the people you offer to share with either don’t like pineapple, or don’t like anchovies.
My view it’s mainly about Marge and her lack of knowledge of spices and seasonings. In the episode where Lisa became a vegetarian there was a similar joke where she said her lamb chops were seasoned by a special ingredient called “salt”.
In terms of cartoon references, that’s definitely a deep cut. The Roman Holidays only ran one season in 1972-73 and was rarely seen in reruns. (Maybe there’s something about Ancient Rome that doesn’t make it the best setting for a kid-friendly animated sitcom.)
I saw a Simpsons post today, pointing out one of the original satirical premises of the Simpsons: in the Reagan era, a single-income six-member family whose sole breadwinner was a high school grad could barely hold on to a middle-class lifestyle.
I don’t think that was intentionanal at all, Homer was already a worker at a nuclear power plant and it’s established he makes enough money to sustain their life style just fine. It was only after the first season you start getting the jokes he was making minimum wage at the SNPP.
Also the episode where he actually becomes safety inspector in the first season it’s established that Mr Burns “pays him off” by giving him a huge pay raise so he doesn’t blab about the power plants awful safety record.
There’s also a throw away line in first season where Ned and Homer both make about the same money, and Ned was originally working as a white collar pharmacy rep for a major firm.
Curious so I looked it up, the average salary in 2019 for a sales representative in the pharmaceutical industry is $100,000 plus bonuses of up to $40,000 a year. The average salary of a nuclear power plant worker in 2019 ranges from $64,000 to $100,000. So assuming Ned donates all his bonus to charity or doesn’t partake in them, and Homer is on the higher end of the salary range due to being a safety inspector, Homers comment on him having near the same salary of makes sense.
Of course we know now that Homer doesn’t have a college degree, but I don’t think that was established in season 1.
The first time Bugs Bunny said “What’s up, Doc?”, it absolutely brought the house down. It was in response to a hunter (probably Elmer Fudd) pointing a gun at him, and instead of doing what a real-life rabbit would probably do, Bugs is just so sly with him.
“What’s up,Doc?” was actually the punchline to a Joe E. Brown routine. He was doing stand-up on stage at a big opera house (This was in a movie, I think it was Wide Open Faces) and he stops, grimaces, and clutches his chest. He calls out “Is there a doctor in the house?” A serious-looking gentleman stands up and says “Yes, I’m a doctor!” And Brown smiles and replies “What’s up, Doc?”
Soupy Sales had his name legally changed to Soupy Sales in my town, and one of my classmates was a real celebrity for a few days because his dad (Chief of Police) let him go the the hearing (or whatever the word for that procedure is).
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