4 ms·
As sad as today is, the one ray of sunshine here is that Tom Lehrer’s obit was written so long ago (and saved for the day it would be needed), that no one updat
by philodeon 1y ago
As sad as today is, the one ray of sunshine here is that Tom Lehrer’s obit was written so long ago (and saved for the day it would be needed), that no one updated it with the subsequent revelation that his work at the Atomic Energy Commission was actually a cover story for his far more sensitive work at the fledgling National Security Agency.
Seeing the New York Times publish wrong out-of-date information has been funny since Judith Miller.
- walterbell 1y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40439810#40460118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40439810#40460118 GEO: As a mathematician did you ever make any brilliant discoveries? TOM LEHRER: Oh,nonono. I have no desire to extend the frontier of human knowledge; retract them, if anything. I like to teach it and I like to think about it, but that's about it.
- Talanes 1y agoIt was written so long ago that the primary author himself died two years ago.
- intuitionist 1y agoI like to think Lehrer would have appreciated the irony of being predeceased by his obituary’s author.
- justjonathan 1y agoSource?