“Old man yells at cloud” — and turns 70

🥳 The creator of "The Simpsons," Matt Groening, turns 70 today.

• Groening grew up in Stumptown and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1972. Can you really call yourself a Portlander if you didn't know he was from here?

The intrigue: The cartoonist confirmed Springfield is not in Oregon, but references to our city are pretty apparent in the show.

• The fictional town of Springfield is surrounded by rolling hills, forests, a Trojan-esque power plant and even a polluted body of water.
• Many characters share the same name as Portland streets — Mr. Burns, Mayor Quimby, Reverend Lovejoy and, of course, Ned Flanders, who had a pedestrian bridge named after him in 2021.

The bottom line: Groening now lives in Los Angeles, but Oregon's "independent oddness" has forever influenced his work.