Wednesday, April 05, 2006

A post wasted with Gregory K.

Taking a small break from pure Fibbery, I wanted to tip my cyber cap to Tom Lehrer. If you aren't familiar with any of his fantastic albums (the last of which was in 1965!), you might still know him: he wrote songs for The Electric Company (newly out on DVD, by the way). Anyway, growing up, my parents played his records... and then I started playing 'em myself... and I suspect this will help you all understand that my sensibilities were formed at an early age.

Now, I kinda pride myself on being able to find humor in most things, and this is probably one reason I sooooo love Mr. Lehrer. For instance, he turns subtraction (and math teaching) into comedy in New Math. AND he does it to music! Heck, I've written funny math poems... but it ends there. That he could have the same fun with so many topics (politics, smut, math, nuclear war, the elements, and on and on), well, suffice to say he raises the bar high for all us creative types.

To bring this post sorta back on topic, a few FoGs have mentioned their suspicion that Mr. Lehrer probably has a great Fibonacci song in his repetoire. I would not be surprised if that were so, though I've never heard one, nor can I find one as I scour the web (a dollar to anyone who finds one, by the way). That's okay, though. This post doesn't have to be so on topic. In time, I'll probably tip the cap to other childhood heroes (Pete Seeger, anyone?), but here in poetic-math month, my hat's doffed to Tom Lehrer.

2 comments:

Yewtree said...

I love Tom Lehrer too, he was fabulous.

Greg Pincus said...

He still is fabulous! If you search around, you can find a few more recent interviews with him posted on the Web. Good stuff.