From the mind of Homer

No, sadly, not the mind of the ancient Greek poet.



















Rather, the mind of this Homer:


















When I started hearing rumors about Santa Clara's plans to spend in excess of $190 million (plus another $100 million or so in land and other property) on a stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, I couldn't help but think of the Simpson's episode "Marge vs. the Monorail."

For those of you without an extensive knowledge of Simpson's trivia, in this episode the town receives an unexpected windfall of $3 million, and they have a meeting to decide how to spend it. Marge proposes that they fix Main Street, but when a slick salesman suggests that they buy a fancy new monorail, the town agrees. I don’t think it will spoil the plot to say that a giant donut saves the day.

A town with cash? Slick salesmen? An unneeded public works project? Promises of jobs?

I'll let you draw the parallels yourself.

But apparently I’m not the only who has made connections between this deal and “The Simpsons.”

One of the bloggers at Say Hay: A Bay Area Sports Blog saw another Homer-related connection.

Here's an excerpt from their post Niners To Santa Clara: “Can We Have Some Money Now?”

According to the Chronicle, the San Francisco 49ers will ask Santa Clara residents to shell out as much as $200 million dollars for the proposed stadium. The Niners are trying to sell the deal based on the influx of new jobs and tax relief, in addition making the stadium “publicly owned.” We obviously don’t know how the exact conversation went, but given the general ineptitude of owner John York, we like to imagine that the conversation was similar to Homer Simpson’s attempt to start an internet company:

Homer: Welcome to the Internet, my friend. How can I help you?

Comic Book Guy: I’m interested in upgrading my 28.8 kilobaud Internet connection to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 line. Will you be able to provide an IP router that’s compatible with my token ring Ethernet LAN configuration?

Homer (after staring blankly): Can I have some money now?

Maybe what the San Francisco 49ers need is a great song to seal the deal. Something like the "Monorail" song.