Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. His songs included “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “The Old Dope Peddler” (set to a tune reminiscent of “The Old Lamplighter”), “Be Prepared” (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and “The Vatican Rag,” in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. Lehrer lyric lines from when I was in elementary school, a long ago memory, corrections invited... She drowned her father in the creek Sing rickety tickety tin She drowned her father in the creek The water tasted bad for a week And we had to make do with gin.
Author: CNN
Published at: 2025-07-28 21:27:50
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