s p o i l e r
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preview from snpp.com
March 30 . 'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky (EABF11)
Eric Idle guest voices as a documentary filmmaker who thinks Lisa is
too broad-minded, so she focuses on astronomy, which is hard to do when the
city lights are too bright to see any stars...but they only get brighter
when Mayor Quimby overreacts to the resulting crime wave after dimming them
in the first placepreview from tvguide.com 'Scuse Me While Miss the Sky 30 min. It's a case of Idle, not Idol, mania. Eric Idle plays pompous documentarian Declan Desmond, who's filming "A Day in the Life of Springfield Elementary." Lisa may be its best pupil, but Declan declares that her diverse interests show a lack of focus and make her a "buffet-style intellectual." That criticism prompts Lisa to embrace astronomy as a career path. But when Springfield's night lights prevent her from gazing at the sky, Lisa successfully lobbies to have them dimmed. However, a resulting crime wave spawns a public backlash that Mayor Quimby quells by restoring even brighter illumination---making a decent night's sleep a dim memory for the increasingly neurotic townspeople.
Previous Episode References:
[2F11] Bart's Comet: Another episode based on astronomy [4F01] Lisa's Date with Density: Hood Ornament Thievery from Nelson
References: The Natural: Information on the movie can be found at: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087781 At the end of the movie Roy Hobbs hits a home run into the lights, causing them all to explode.
Notes:
Scrimshaw is a type of etching into bone or other hard material. Information on the process can be wound at www.scrimshaw.com . The exact definition is: Scrimshaw is the art of etching a picture onto whale bone, ivory or other hard substance, and filling in the etching with ink to bring out the picture. Though the origin of the name is uncertain, we know it has been practiced since revolutionary times. It is the indigenous art form of the American Whaleman, who, in his idle hours cruising for whales, devoted himself to fashioning articles and jewelry from the scrap teeth and bone onboard. It didn't receive widespread recognition until President John F. Kennedy, an enthusiastic collector, brought scrimshaw to the public eye.
Light Pollution is a major problem in astronomy: Information on this subject can be found at: http://www.umich.edu/~lowbrows/light/
Most plants' and animals' biological cycles are based on the length of night, and not the length of day, so while birds may not be burying themselves in dirt, it can mess up natural rhythms.
Review: There were some funny parts of the episode, and it had a pretty decent story to it. While I thought it was a little weird getting from one end of the episode to the other, it was still a pretty good ride. Grade: B+