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"The Elements" is the Tom Lehrer song that made the biggest impression on me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th

• 082349872349872 4y ago
  We'll try to stay serene and calm When Alabama gets the bomb! had obviously been written about the Dixie of 1965, but today still gives chills.
  • incone123 4y ago
    Alabama has been hosting nuclear missiles for many decades. South Africa wants two That's right! One for the black And one for the white
    • aebtebeten 4y ago
      True, "Alabama" is even the name of a boomer submarine. But both it, and all the nuke-capable bases (MXF, RSA, etc.) are federal, not state, which has been an important distinction in the past (especially in 1963). In Birmingham they love the governor cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door
      • bombcar 4y ago
        I love watching the Hunt for Red October now that “boomer” means “out of touch old person” along with “fully loaded nuclear icbm submarine”
    • lb1lf 4y ago
      Egypt wants to get one, too, just to use on you-know-who. So Israel's getting tense, wants one for self defense "The Lord's our Shepherd", says the psalm - but just in case, we'd better get a bomb!
• SanjayMehta 4y ago
  As a kid I saw a reference by Asimov to Lehrer and that sent me off on a quest which ended with a very helpful librarian in the American Center Library in Delhi. Then many years later, iPad came out and there was an app which catalogued all the elements with that song as the lead-in. Unfortunately it seems to have vanished from the app store.
  • theodoregray 4y ago
    Hey, that's my app, and it's definitely still there! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/id364147847 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/... Fun fact: when we made the app the song was of course not yet in the public domain, so I made a deal with Lehrer to trade him an iPad for the use of the song in my app. He was already talking at the time about eventually putting everything in the public domain. His main concern was to try to do it in a way that would prevent record companies from ever making money from his work. Theodore Gray https://theodoregray.com https://theodoregray.com
    • SanjayMehta 4y ago
      Oh wow. The original apps I bought were all from Touchpress and they vanished from my purchases quite some time ago. I remember The Elements, Barefoot Atlas(?). Was the animated story book also yours?
      • theodoregray 4y ago
        I was the founder and creative director of TouchPress, so I had a hand in all those apps. For Disney Animated I wrote the text and directed the production. Sadly the business model of $10 interactive eBooks did not work out (unlike $10 static text eBooks, which seem to be much more popular?), and TouchPress was sold (apps and the name) to a company called Story Toys out of Ireland. About a year ago they were bought out by a larger Japanese company, and we were able to buy back The Elements, Molecules, and a few of the other apps, so they are now back to being published by myself and my partners on a low-key maintenance basis.
• Symbiote 4y ago
  I also like the parody-of-a-parody, The Drugs Song by Amateur Transplants (medical students from my university, some years ago). There's Aspirin, Adrenaline & also Aminophylline, Amphetamine, Adenosine, Augmentin & Rifampicin, Amoxicillin, Penicillin, Heparin & Warfarin & Oestrogen, Progestagen & Canesten & Chloroquine ... "Best" quality video I can find: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ohing https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ohing Lyrics: https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/elucjw/the_drugs_song/ https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/elucjw/the... And the obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1052/ https://xkcd.com/1052/
  • dtgriscom 4y ago
    Cheater! He took a breath in the middle of a verse! (Perhaps because he's doing it at 2/3 tempo...)