April 9, 1928 –
… Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Tom Lehrer, singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician,was born on this date. (Lehrer entered Harvard at age 15, having skipped several grades. Everyone applying for admission to Harvard was required to include an example of their written work. Lehrer submitted a long verse, in the style of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. The poem ended with the lines:
I will leave movie thrillers
And watch caterpillars
Get born and pupated and larva’ed,
And I’ll work like a slave
And always behave
And maybe I’ll get into Harvard…
The poem in its entirety appeared in Scholastic Magazine in 1943. (It was Lehrer’s first published work.)
Let’s all throw open the windows of our homes and shout “Happy 98th birthday” then go read a smutty magazine in his honor.
The Haus of Dcaligari 