"Writer's Block" Week continues, with another of humorist/satirist/math teacher/fugitive-from-the-limelight Tom Lehrer's work for "The Electric Company." This explains the many transformative powers of "Silent E." As Lehrer says in "The Vatican Rag:" "Time to transubstantiate!"
For those not wanting to stay silent, here's another wonderful karaoke version of a Lehrer song--that ode to the Boy Scouts "Be Prepared."
And another quote-this time about why he stopped writing his satirical songs: "I can just pick up the paper and get ten topics, but how do you write a song about it? It's easier to be funny when you're not bitter and angry; If I were to write a song about Newt Gingrich, I can't imagine [it] being funny." [I'm]often reminded of the old Punch cartoon showing a dying patient forlornly asking the doctor at his bedside, 'Doctor, is there any hope?', to which the doctor replies 'No, why?'" These days, Lehrer says he feels like "a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava." He's also said "Once Henry Kissinger wins the Nobel Prize for Peace, satire becomes obsolete." Thanks to Jeremy Mazner for the quotes taken from his fine essay on Tom Lehrer, which you can persuse at this fine site.
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