17 Comments

The Simpsons did go incognito in one episode as "The Thompsons" (with a P, so no relation to J.J.) and the title card/theme music were modified accordingly, as you suggested...

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Awesome episode.

"Hello, Mr. Thompson"

"I think he's talking to you..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quxW1V8Hwlg

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I'm about 2/3 done with an audio course on personality. Operant conditioning is literally the section I finished last night.

Once again, this place is not just a bunch of things I write- it is a brain trust! Well done, Daniel and David.

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There's no word on whether JJ, upon seeing GP's findings, exclaimed "D'oh!"

But we must assume he 100% did that.

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Only if he could remember what his last name was!

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8 yo me, you said annals; 13 yo me, I got a crookes radiometer at the observatory and watched it spin; 18 yo old me, I poured over the Thomas Guide to figure out where to go.

Never heard of The Thompsons

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Thomas Guides were the best we had before Mapquest, right?

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My dad drove a cab in LA; they were the Bible.

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I remember taking road trips pre-internet. My own window for this was pretty short - by the time I was out living on my own, it was 1994 and the internet was exploding. I might have had around 10 good years of mystery driving by way of giant maps.

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Paper maps are viscerally pleasing. When I get one at a park or something I can't help but keep it

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I know what you mean. I'm tempted to buy some for this year: i want to learn where every country in the world is, just kind of a learning lark for the year.

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Remember Atlas's? Great name. I bet you could find a cool one at a used bookstore

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Oh yes. I guess maybe my dad taught me how to navigate using maps - I have no memory of this happening, but deduction tells me this must be where I learned to use 'em, because by the time I was driving on my own, I could (mostly) read a map. I know that's not true of all gen X kids!

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I found a guy on Reddit who is an old school cartographer and he draws maps of areas based on locals input. I got the one he did for my county (new to me) framed and I look at it all the time. It's also really pretty

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Neat! Anachronistic skill sets become artisan if you give them enough time.

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