CCTV in Balsa

Like many episodes of The Simpsons in the last few years, last night's was just okay. As continued evidence that the writers are running out of ideas (in one way this is a good thing, meaning they have mined all the good ideas already), Homer becomes a "helicopter parent," hovering over Bart and Lisa to make the former less of a loser and the latter popular. The first concerns us here. Spoilers follow for those who haven't seen it, but FOX is nice enough to provide the full episode online.



For class Bart must create a scale model of a building out of balsa wood. (I recall doing the same thing, albeit in high school, with the Globe Theatre.) His first choice of Washington Monument is nixed by Homer, who realizes that choice is too easy. They undertake Westminster Abbey, with Homer taking over the balsa and blue glue reigns. As expected the model looks like crap.

What I really like is the choice of the other models revealed in the contest, including the CCTV Building in Beijing, China by OMA,



the Brazilian National Congress by Oscar Niemeyer,



and the Temples at Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal.



As might be expected Bart wins the contest, because his model looks like he didn't have help from his father. As Bart has said in the past, "the ironing is delicious."