Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) is an American songwriter and mathematician. In the 50s and 60s he wrote some charming pieces of music satirizing foreign policy and prominent political and scientific figures. There’s nothing quite like dated satire. Here’s a song about Dr. Wernher von Braun:
‘Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department’, says Wernher von Braun.
He’s written a few albums worth of material, most of which is floating around on YouTube, including Who’s Next, Lobachevsky, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, and The Elements.
He joked that he gave up satire in 1973, after Henry Kissinger received the Noble Peace Prize. He also claimed to have invented the Jell-O shot while working at the NSA, which raises all kinds of concerns.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under science, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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