The episode title is a play on the book title "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916) by James Joyce.
Final acting role of Everett Greenbaum.
Harry: "Old people say the darnedest things." This is a parody of the name of a show hosted by Bill Cosby entitled "Kids Say the Darndest Things (1998)", on which Bill would ask a young child a question and the kid would respond in a funny, precocious way. The idea originated in the 1940s and 1950s: Art Linkletter would interview kids on his radio show "House Party", and later on television as host of "People Are Funny (1954)", with hilarious results. He collected the best bits in his book titled "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" (Prentice-Hall, 1957).