[Boreal]

So I remember this episode as a kid watching Bart try to reunite Krusty with his Dad. The only thing that stuck in my brain was the name... Saul Bellow.


Then I heard Adam Duritz explain how he wrote the song Rainking for Counting Crows.

A band composition, lead singer Adam Duritz wrote the lyrics to this song. He got the title from the book Henderson the Rain King, which was written by Saul Bellow in 1959. Duritz read the book when was a student at the University of California, where he was an English major. A few years later, he wrote the song, including the line "Henderson is waiting for the sun" as a reference to the main character, Eugene Henderson, who is a guy that disrupts the lives of others, making a mess of everything around him.

The song isn't about the book specifically, but relates to how Duritz felt about his art. On Counting Crows VH1 Storytellers special, he explained: "The book became a totem for how I felt about creativity and writing: it was this thing where you took everything you felt inside you and just sprayed it all over everything. It's a song about everything the goes into writing, all the feelings, everything that makes you want to write and pick up a guitar and express yourself. It's full of all the doubts and the fears about how I felt about my life at the time."

So I went and I found the book “Henderson the Rain King” in the library.

Author.

Saul Bellow...

I KNOW THAT NAME!

AND HE’S FROM MONTREAL!!

HE’S Canadian!!!

Let us never forgot that Homer Groening was born in Saskatchewan.

In Montreal for a performance of The Simpsons In the Flesh stage show at the Just for Laughs comedy festival, the shows creator Matt Groening noted Thursday his dad was born in Canada. Homer being named after Groening's father, so what does where does this lead Homer?

"That would make Homer Simpson a Canadian," Groening said in an interview. "I hope Canadians won't hold it against the show now that they know.

Not all too surprising, as one fan noted, "Homer eats foods commonly associated with Canada: donuts, beer, bacon, and has been know to have a glass of maple syrup for breakfast.".

Update (June 2, 2003): After Matt Groening stated his father, Homer Groening, was likely from Winnipeg, the city of Winnipeg declared Homer Simpsons and honorary Winnipegger on May 30, 2003. Although it has now be revealed the Homer Groening is more likely to hail from Main Centre, Saskatchewan it didn't have an effect on the 300 some people who attended the ceremony.