Revisiting: What Remedy Is Bart Simpson?

It’s time for the quiz, Mom!

Here are a couple of things I forgot to mention;

Forgot to mention?  You haven’t said anything yet!

I think I may have mentioned Conan O’Brien’s show is switching formats.

Right, and I think I may have mentioned that, no one cares!

Conan will be cut to a half-hour show in January.

That is a real demotion!

Apparently his house band (formerly The Max Weinberg 7) will no longer be part of the show.  I don’t know why Coney is doing this to me!

Why is he doing it to himself?  This is such a humiliation, he ought to quit!

He gave a very classy speech on his last hour-long show in tribute to them.  Then he played the guitar with them and sang “40 Days”.

“40 Days” again?  Is that the only song he knows?

So a month ago in the car we were talking about record producer and song-writer, Thom Bell…

(who apparently is Jamaican).

Really?  No way!  

We were talking about him because “Easy Come, Easy Go” by the Spinners came on.

I am finding it hard to believe that a Jamaican is responsible for the classy soul sounds of The Delfonics and The Spinners!

Mom, I’m trying to say something here.

Oh!  Well that’s different.  Never mind! 

Turns out in January, “La-La Means I Love You” by the Delfonics turns 50 years old.

 

Spongebob Squarepants…

How did we suddenly land on Spongebob?

…a lovable sea sponge–Spongia, to you– created by a man who was also a former marine biologist named Stephen Hillenburg has, unfortunately, died from something called ALS.

If only he had known about Lathyrus sativus.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Spongebob is a very popular cartoon.

Spongbob was in one of our “famous person” quizzes!

Stephen is the man responsible for bringing Spongebob to life.  Without him there would be no Spongebob! 

Gasp!

Can you imagine?  He wrote and produced it as well.  After the first movie, he left but still continued as producer.  By the time of the second movie, he returned to the show and continued to work until his death.  I think it’s amazing that despite his illness, he soldiered on.

So sad…

Spongebob is a very clever show and apparently it’s going to continue without him.  Also, I can’t remember if I mentioned that Spongebob will be 20 years old next year.

So put that on your calendar so when the time comes you can say, “Guess what turned 20?”

Oh, and this is really interesting.  Apparently Stephen worked on some episodes of “the Rugrats” before “Spongebob”.

We learn so much here… not!

 I guess I should mention that former U.S. president, George H.W. Bush, died.

Well, if you have to….. And just because I said that, I’m going to get hate-mail now!

We don’t normally talk about politics here at the ezine…

We don’t?

…but without him, we never would’ve had Dana Carvey’s hilarious impressions of him on Saturday Night Live or that episode of “The Simpsons” you didn’t think was funny. 

It wasn’t.  But speaking of “The Simpsons”… guess who’s in The Quiz this month? 

Bart Simpson!  

Make that 29.  

What?  

“The Simpsons”–turned 29–this month.  

No one cares, Shana!

One of my clients who thinks that maybe her whole family is a replica of “The Simpsons”, has requested that I do a “What Remedy Is Bart Simpson”!

So, in order to explain Bart to our non-English speaking friends, who won’t be able to understand the video, Bart is every parent’s worst nightmare!  He’s hyper-active, has trouble paying attention, is not doing well in school and doesn’t really care.  He has a penchant for getting into trouble (“Now Marge, you’re going to hear a lot of crazy talk about Bart working in a Burlesque House….”), he carries a sling-shot in his back pocket, the show always starts with Bart’s punishment for misbehaving in school; He’s bored in church unless he’s played a trick on Reverend Lovejoy (like switching the hymn music to a rock ‘n’ roll song) and in the episode we’re about to see, called “Bart Gets An F”, we begin with Bart giving a book report on a book he’s never read.  He’s told he better pass  tomorrow’s test on Colonial America, or else he’ll have to repeat the 4th grade! 

After school, Bart spends hours at the video arcade playing action video games, then goes home, drinks a can of soda while watching violent cartoons on TV, eats dinner, then he and his father, Homer Simpson, spend hours watching a stupid movie about a giant ape running amok.  Finally, at bed time, Bart starts studying.  Two seconds later, he’s fallen dead asleep. 

The next day, knowing he hasn’t studied, Bart fakes an attack of appendicitis and gets sent to the nurse’s office.  Ultimately, he gets sent home.  He’s fooled everybody but his sister, Lisa.  Bart tells her, “No problem!” as he calls his best friend Milhouse and says, “What were the answers to today’s test?”  Feeling confident, Bart goes to school the following day and takes the exam.  But he is called in after school.  “Bart,” his teacher says, “this is the worst test score since Milhouse failed the exam yesterday!”

The school psychiatrist is called in, as well as Bart’s parents.  “An under-achiever and proud of it,” the psychiatrist observes.  After making note of Bart’s poor attention span, Homer zones-out and doesn’t hear anything else at the meeting.  Finally the psychiatrist says, “I think Bart should repeat the 4th grade.”  This upsets Bart so much, he begs for a make-up exam.

He tries to get the smart kid in class, Martin Prince, to help him study.  He says, “Martin, if you help me pass the test, I’ll keep the other kids from laughing at you.”  To prove that the other kids do, in fact, laugh at him, Bart pushes Martin down to the ground twice, and all the kids laugh.

And so it begins: Martin tries to show Bart how to study.  First he sees that Bart’s room is a mess and helps him clean it up.  Bart explains to Martin that the cool kids sit in the back of the bus, not in the front–same with church and school, and they do “fun” things like throw unsuspecting boys into the girls’ bathroom! 

However, the plan back-fires when Martin becomes so exhilarated over no longer being an outcast, he says the heck with studying and runs off with the boys who used to laugh at him!  Bart is once again on his own.  He does the only thing he can do, he prays for some natural disaster to close the school!

The next day, it snows.

Bart studies real hard, he slaps himself in the face to try to stay awake, but it’s no use!  He gets a 59 on the test.  The teacher says, “It’s another F, Bart, see you in the 4th grade!”  Bart cries.  He says, “Now I know how George Washington felt when he surrendered to the French in 1754!”  His teacher is brought up short.  “What?” she says.  “That’s good enough for an extra point!”  She changes Bart’s grade to a 60–(a D-minus).  Bart is ecstatic!  He runs home singing, “I passed!  I passed!  I got a D-minus!!!”

So, OK, gang, that’s it!   Here’s the video—it’s an abbreviated version, that’s how it is on YouTube these days, unfortunately, due to copyright protections.  Make a list of the elements of the case, then find rubrics for them, then repertorize, and write to me at [email protected] and tell me what remedy is Bart Simpson! 

***********

Votes

Sulphur-2

Lachesis

Phosphorus

Lycopodium

 

Is anybody here today?  Who wants to go first?

 

Hi Elaine .

Well I think Bart is a chip off the old block and I remember Homer being a sulphur so i’m going down the lazy route and saying Bart is like his dad ..a sulphur.  Same untidy mind and habits, same day-dreamer, same lack of application and laziness.

Hi Neil, well, Homer would be proud of you because, yes, you took the lazy way out!  Now you actually have to do the work, find the elements of the case.  Sure, you can say Bart is “lazy”, but, isn’t it more to the point that Bart has an absolute “aversion to study”?  That’s a much more useful rubric than “laziness” which contains 265 remedies!  (Murphy’s Repertory)  So, no, it’s not Sulphur.  Keep trying.

Doh!

Exactly!  Is anybody else here today?

 

Hello Elaine and Shana,

Hi Salma!

I guess Bart Simpson is Lachesis!

A good guess; I know why you think so, because he’s cruel, right?  But did you make a list of the elements of the case?  For instance, Bart’s messy room means that he is “untidy”?  Is Lachesis in that rubric?  No.  This requires real discernment.

Thanks Elaine.  I took the rubrics:

Mind- activity, mental-increased

What led you to pick that one?

Sorry, I should have picked “hyperactive children”

Mind- deceitful

Right, I picked that one too.

Mind-concentration, general-difficult

With over 250 remedies, this rubric isn’t going to help us much.  Too big.  I picked “Attention Deficit Disorder”, which only has 28 remedies.  It’s in Murphy’s Mind chapter.

Mind- egotistical, haughty

Yeah, I don’t know, that’s kind of a stretch….

Mind-restlessness

Too big a rubric, hundreds of remedies.  Wouldn’t “hyperactive children” cover it? 

When i add “untidy” Sulphur comes in front of Lachesis but if i add dirtiness in place of untidy (as it contains only 5) Sulphur comes first and then Nux vomica and if i take mind-restlessness, drives him from place to place in place….

No, I don’t think that rubric pertains to him.  Bart is a hyperactive child.  He probably eats too much junk food, which is why he can’t sit still and can’t study.  

Is there any other rubric i can take for Bart Simpson?

Think about Bart:  He has an aversion to school, an aversion to studying, an aversion to reading (all are rubrics); all he wants to do is play!  That’s a rubric too, “Playing, desire for”.  He’s disobedient, cruel, deceitful and untidy.  Also, like you said, he’s got ADD and hyperactivity.  What do you think now?

Sorry sometimes I am so dumb!  Now I think Bart is Medorrhinum.

YES!!  That’s it!!!  

Thanks Elaine for guiding and teaching.

Regards

Salma

Bangladesh

 

Oh look, it’s the gang from Slovakia!

 

Dear Elaine and Shana,

we send our first answers in this year to the last quiz of the last year.

Wow, so profound!

Miroslav’s answer is: Phosphorus

After reading the description of Bart, I thought of such remedies as Tuberculinum, Stramonium, Tarentula …, but after watching the video I didn´t feel aggressiveness or maliciousness in the boy.

Really?  You know, he’s always in trouble!  And the video was edited.  The part where he pushes poor innocent Martin Prince to the ground and everyone laughs is taken out.

… It rather seemed to me he has a sort of bad luck, he is easily distracted from the object of his interest and really mindless.

I’ve picked these rubrics including hints:

Mind, chaotic

What did he do that was chaotic?  He simply won’t study.  He can’t concentrate on anything academic, he hates to read, he hates school, he only wants to play, he’s disobedient, he’s deceitful (he lies) and he’s a bit cruel.

Mind, learns badly

He doesn’t learn at all!  He has an aversion to study.  That’s actually a rubric.

Mind, fear of failure (repetition of a school grade)

No, he just wants to stay with his class.  He imagines still being in the 4th grade as a grown-up!  What a disgrace that would be!  He knows he has to pass the test but he can’t concentrate to read!

Mind, inattentive

That’s a good rubric, but even better is the sub-rubric “inattentive when studying”!  That’s really to the point, isn’t it?  And only 3 remedies–and one of them is the one I picked!

Food, drinks, soda drinks, desire–Phosphorus.

True, but, you know why kids like sodas?  They’re full of sugar!  Of course, Phosphorus desires sweets too.  But, no, it’s not Phosphorus.  Phosphorus isn’t cruel, deceitful, lying, dishonest, cheating–though they do have trouble paying attention, staying focused; their mind does wander.

 

Jitka´s answer is: Sulphur

I saw  these features in Bart, in my opinion they create a picture of the Sulphur child.

 

– perpetual motion;

 

– center of any mischief

 

– high spirited; naughty

 

– getting into trouble and into fights

 

– disobedient; unheeding and defiant of reprimand.

 

– coarseness and roughness

 

– laziness, untidiness,

 

– lack of discipline

 

– irresponsible

 

That’s a good one.  “Aversion to responsibility”.  But, you know what?  You missed all the obvious ones: Aversion to reading, to studying, aversion to school.  Pretending to have appendicitis and copying Milhouse’s test answers, what’s that?  That’s “deceitful” and “lies, inclination to tell lies”; and he’s cruel, he pushed Martin down twice to prove to him that kids really do laugh at him.

Anyway, the remedy is Medorrhinum.  Robin Murphy calls Medorrhinum “Wild Child”: undisciplined, irresponsible, hyperactive, poor grades, poor study habits, getting into fights, mischief, lying, cheating…  Plus, other traits that include:

hot body–walks around in bare feet, throws the covers off at night

desires ice, loves to chew on ice cubes

thirsty for cold drinks

better at night, dull during the day

desires oranges and unripe fruit like green apples

better at the ocean

 

Here’s my repertorization:

Well, there you have it, everybody, thanks for voting!  See you again next time!

————————————-

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

Elaine takes online cases and animal cases too!

Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com