I haven't checked out the linked article, but it's old news to "Simpsons" fans that Matt's characters are loosely autobiographical-- at least, many names are derived from his personal life.

His father's name is Homer-- and his mother's maiden name is Wiggum, for that matter. The correspondences go on and on.

And it's silly to treat the "revelation" that the Simpson's home town is "really" Springfield, Oregon literally, as if a deep, closely-held secret had been revealed.

Again, it's old news that Matt's concept of Springfield, the quintessential Amerikan small town, emerged from his own background-- and that "Springfield" was an especially felicitous choice because it's such a popular name for cities and towns from coast to coast.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually kept up with "The Simpsons" for several years, since for me they began to reach a point of diminishing returns after the first ten seasons or so. But as a respectful "legacy" fan, I couldn't resist commenting on this trivial "Further" fluff piece.

The best part of Springfield, Oregon's spot is that it is attached to Eugene, unquestionably one of the brightest towns in America, like Ann Arbor, Boulder, Yellow Springs, Asheville NC, Ithaca NY, and sorry if I missed a couple...

You know, Stone, the best part I found about Springfield's "spot" growing up, (and I do mean GROWING UP, as I was not ALLOWED to watch The Simpsons the first year it came out), was that it somehow reflected resonating familial bonds/anxieties, vis a vis societal mores & pop-culture idiosyncratic cameos, all the while making you laugh. My parents also remind me of Homer and Marge.
But we were no where anywhere near being from Eugene, Boulder, Ann Arbor or Ithaca. We were from bum-f--- hickville TX, (although I didn't know it then). Perhaps I don't even know it now. But I do know I related to the rawness and realness of The Simpsons in its first few seasons. (Can't/won't vouch for it today...) What I guess I mean to say is, I am thankful for the Anywhereville, USA aspect that the show maintained (while it was actually socially relevant), because it provided a conduit for humorous relation/release, regardless of one's actual zip-code.
We can't all hail from a recognized progressive point of light on the map. But the "thousand" (actually millions of...) points of progressive "light" are out there, tonight,today, tomorrow... I'm just so tired of the frivolous USAan selective provincialism and regional one-uppery I witness on these CD threads. It registers as an especially thin and tedious form of birth-place snobbery, truth be told. Same goes to the folks who routinely use the term "redneck" as if it's some quantum-political sign of the progressive equivalent of "Outlanders!" from the Children on the Corn. (Abby & others, take note!). We can't all hail from Maine. We can't all hail from Oregan. And even if it turns out that The Simpson's do (take their inspiration from Oregan), it won't change the history of the show that in it's initial incarnation - when the series actually had a soul - it was really the Anywhere, USA aspect of the setting combined with the visceral, sweaty, high-proletariat aspiration for (at least/if only) lower-middle-class status that gave it its fleeting, electric relevancy. I was just a kid myself but I did at least come away with that much...

As a lifelong Oregonian and a fan of Matt Groening's incomparable cartoon "Life In Hell," I always assumed that Groening, being an Oregonian himself, had secretly set his fictional Springfield in our state. For a decade or so I lived in Eugene (which is wonderful) and then for a couple of years in its neighboring city Springfield (which is less so); during that decade (the 90s) I was quite a Simpsons fanatic. Less so nowadays, partly because of the variable quality of the show nowadays, partly because I have actually grown up (in my forties now). The quality of Matt Groening's humor, as evidenced in the early Simpsons seasons and especially in Life In Hell, will always be special to me, and a source of home-grown Oregonian pride.