Singing Sweet Caroline at Fenway during Game 1 of the 2007 World Series.
Boston is in the midst of an absolute World Series tourist rush. BOS is full of those from away, and those returning, all wearing Red Sox gear. Say what you will about the pink hats, the band wagon, and Red Sox Nation, John Henry and the group that bought the Boston Red Sox have turned the team into a worldwide brand to be reckoned with. Furthermore, they have turned cramped old Fenway into baseballs top tourist attraction.
Nothing encapsulates that more than listening and watching those at Fenway sing along to Sweet Caroline, an alleged Red Sox "tradition". Truth of the matter is the Sox started playing Neil Diamond's classic sometime around 1999. Amy Tobey, who was the ballpark's music director from 1998 to 2004, is credited with first playing the song at Fenway, but at the time it was hardly a staple.
When John Henry bought the team in 2002 his group made playing Sweet Caroline mandatory before the home half of the eighth inning and the rest is history. 2002 was a forgettable season, and most Red Sox fans don't really remember happily singing along with Neil until the 2003 season, but somehow it feels like a tradition as old as manually changing the score on the Green Monster scoreboard. Doesn't really matter much now, because people come from all over the world to sing along and watch the Sox play.
Was in the spring, and spring became the summer, who'd have believed you'd come along...
We've been posting up a storm about the The Simpsons' alleged locale. Forget the fact that USA Today and Fox Studios are claiming Springfield Vermont as the true home of Homer's clan, we all know that is just premiere promotion talking. And while creator Matt Groening routinely tells critics the fictional city is in a state bordering both Maine and Florida, we think we've got him pinned on the Simpsons's actual home -- Portland, Oregon.
Groening grew up in the City of Roses, and there you will find many landmarks taken from the city and replaced in cartoon form over the years. Not to mention, the many street names which are used for character names in the series. With a little help from The Simpsons Archive, we've created a road map to yellow-hued cartoon travel in the state of Oregon.
From Springfield Nuclear to vandalism in the name of Ned Flanders, if you are going to go on a Simpsons pilgrimage, might as well do it right. Also, we want your help in adding more Simpsons inspired locations to the map. Send your evidence here and we will magically turn it into a map point.
Writer Ernest Hemingway spent many happy years holed up in his Key West house, translating his experiences on safari and at war to print. After his suicide in 1961, his two-story bungalow became a pilgrimage spot for all of Jake Barnes' friends the world over -- and a refuge for the descendants of his six-toed cat, Snowball. But if the Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has its way, Snowball's relatives are about to get the boot.
Curators of the museum promise the Hemingway cats are well fed and happy, but according to the state of Florida the site doesn't properly contain the animals, nor does it have an Animal Welfare license. Can visitors still "enjoy the whimsy" of animals that just can't be caged? It's times like this that we ask ourselves: What Would Papa Do?
Somehow Springfield, Vermont managed to nab the title of The Real Springfield in a recent contest promoting The Simpsons movie. Personally, we don't think Mayor Quimby's town has a New England feel to it--despite his accent. For one thing, after watching thousands of episodes, we haven't spotted a single B&B.
Further, it's a known fact that Portland, Oregon-born Matt Groening didn't stray far from home to find his inspiration for the show (his parents are named Homer and Marge, after all). Since Portland has a neighboring town named Springfield, placing the Simpsons in Oregon is not a stretch.
The kicker? The above pictured statue, allegedly called the "Pioneer Father," on the sort-of-nearby University of Oregon campus, is obviously the inspiration for Jebediah Springfield.
So let's take a look at the unofficial Real Springfield. The Springfield Oregon Visitor's Center and Chamber of Commerce's "local events" listing names mainly new bank branch ribbon-cutting ceremonies, golf tournaments, and fundraisers. Funny, it sounds like the kind of ho-hum small-town happenings we recognize from watching Fox on Sunday nights...
Springfield Vermont is the official home of the The Simpsons, sort of. Now that we know where Homer and crew live, time to make a Vermont pilgrimage, to the official home of the first family of cartoons.
The fourteen Springfields of the United States were encouraged to make videos bolstering their Simpsons-worthiness for viewers to vote on online, and the town of 9,000 took first place with its donut-chasing adventure film.
One bitter Illinois resident, displeased with that Springfield's second-place finish, declared that Vermont isn't even a state in retaliation, while another blogger claimed that the real Simpsons hometown would never win such a contest in the first place. People, please, it's a perfectly cromulent prize, so let's embiggen the winning state.
Citizens of all Springfields in the contest will get a sneak peek of the "Simpsons" movie, although Springfield Vermont will host its July 21 premiere. The movie hits theatres nationwide on July 27th. Closest airport to the Simpson's new official home? MHT in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Creators of the American version of The Office admit they selected Scranton, Pa. as its locale because they wanted a city that exemplified bland, non-descript Middle America. On the show, the city hosts a regional office of fake paper supply company Dunder Mifflin. In real life, Scranton embraces its depiction as Anywhere, USA.
Mayor Chris Doherty flies the company banner outside City Hall, and you just know Scranton officials are not-so-secretly thinking "cottage tourism industry" with this one.
The show's creators enjoy inserting real Scranton references into dialogue and on the set. There's even a blog dedicated to tracking these occurrences and a fan convention coming up in October. Here are a few places to put on your visit list, all of which have made cameos on the show.
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by markj
