Simpsons writers flock to Woods Hole

Somehow in the course of my life, I have been privileged to come to know many of the genius writers that bring the hit FOX series "The Simpsons" to life week after week.

And if you like "The Simpsons" then you know that the show is filled with erudite, cutting edge references to people, places and things all over the planet. The writers of such a show must be very very smart indeed. Smart enough to know that Woods Hole makes a great vacation!

So it is with some pride that I name-drop two of the very best writers from the show who came to visit us in Woods Hole this summer -- Ian Maxtone-Graham and Mike Reiss. Ian came in early August and held a cool seminar in Quicks Hole as part of the Woods Hole Film Festival. The Boston Globe wrote a very funny article about it which you can read here:

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/
2009/07/22/animated_conversation_with_simpsons_writer/

Mike and his lovely wife Denise came late in the summer and stayed for lobster salads at Quicks Hole. They live in NYC now and commute to LA for Mike to bring his unique genius to the show one day a week. Mike is also known for his great kids books, and a wonderful lecture he gives about writing on the longest running TV comedy.

We are honored to host writing luminaries at the Woods Hole Inn. Any other Simpsons writers who would like to come check it out are welcome to call for a reservation -- I'll give you the Mike Reiss discount (everyone knows he and Denise are all about value:)

Woods Hole = Harvard Square of Cape Cod

So, I guess I am not the only one who thinks the academic buildings of Woods Hole make the whole place feel a little like Cambridge on Cape Cod. And frankly, since I often refer to Cambridge as "utopia," when you mix utopia with great beaches and the positive ions of the ocean air, I guess you get...um... nirvana?

Harvard professor Louis Agassiz was an important force in the development of the Marine Biological Laboratory back in the 1880s. And along with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, there have been countless Harvard grads living and working here for the last 125 years. The MBL is billed as the oldest private laboratory in the country and it is famous for serendipitious scientific encounters such as the meeting of Franklin Stahl and Matthew Messelsen which resulted in the first replications of DNA. And lots of other cool stuff like that including all the research for Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

There are two or three Nobel prize winners living right in this little fishing village. So if you are into science, walking around here is like being on the red carpet at the science Academy Awards: "Look, there's Brad Pitt, err ... I mean Osamu Shimomura. He's married to Angelina Jolie, I mean ... He won the Nobel for harnessing the natural power of luminescence found in jellyfish."

Follow this link to the journalist who claims, "I like to think of Woods Hole, in Falmouth, as the Harvard Square of Cape Cod." She has a number of nice photos there too.

http://www.examiner.com/x-18360-
Cape-Cod-Science--Nature-Examiner~
y2009m8d31-Slideshow-Woods-
Hole-in-Falmouth

And if you want to know more about Shimomura, check this out:

http://www.mbl.edu/news/features/shimomura.html

But remember, the "nirvana" you may experience with those positive ions, the great beaches and our wonderful ocean views is not really science. To me, it's more like art.