Tom Lehrer once proclaimed, as part of the song “Clementine,” that songs from Gilbert and Sullivan (especially when it comes to a “rousing finale”) were “full of words and music and signifying nothing.” Of course, Gilbert and Sullivan often provide a great foundation to write a parody, as Tom Lehrer himself demonstrated in “The Elements” (and […]
Tag: Tom Lehrer
Ant men who really love their mother
This half-century-old song by Tom Lehrer seems—save for its failure to mention ants—to anticipate a study published this month about ants: “Virgin ant queens mate with their own sons to avoid failure at colony foundation,” Christine Vanessa Schmidt [pictured here], Sabine Frohschammer, Alexandra Schrempf, Jürgen Heinze, Naturwissenschaften, vol. 101, no. 1, January 2014, pp 69-72. […]
A biography of Tom Lehrer
If you are looking for a biography of Tom Lehrer — and why wouldn’t you be? — here’s one: “Tom Lehrer: Having Fun,” Jeremy Bernstein, The American Scholar, 1984, vol.53, 3, pp.295-302. Here are a few of the many good reasons why you might be looking:
Tom Lehrer sings of sociology and mathematics
Tom Lehrer, master of many trades, sings here about sociology and mathematics, a mixture that is not always a solution: (HT Vaughn Tan)