The Elements
On a dark and rainy day with science cuts looming, I thought I’d cheer myself (and hopefully some of yourselves) up with a little bit of Tom Lehrer. Here are the chemical elements set to the tune of I am the very model of a modern Major-General – the ultimate patter song – from the Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan. Enjoy.
ps. Anyone with some time to spare might wish to work on a set of alternative lyrics, in which the first line ends with “Chief Executive”..
In the Dark 
September 29, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Yes, I do enjoy – many thanks Peter. I got TL’s autograph in London in 1998 by queuing outside the stage door after his first public performance for many years – a couple of songs in an evening honouring impresario Cameron Mackintosh, who had clearly helped TL’s bank balance by putting on the show Tomfoolery 18 years earlier. I asked him to sign a photocopy of his 1958 paper “Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter” and he was rather surprised.
Anton
September 29, 2010 at 4:24 pm
“I got TL’s autograph in London in 1998 by queuing outside the stage door after his first public performance for many years”
To stand there that long, you must have been really keen to get his autograph.
September 29, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Hmm… how could I queue for many years in 1998?
September 29, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I suppose, to be pedantic, his first performance might have been many years before 1998….
September 29, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Unlike a friend I was too mean to buy a seat for the show – although had it been an entire evening of Tom Lehrer then the sky would have been the limit – but I got chatting to the people in the van outside the Lyceum theatre who were offficially recording it, and watched it live on ten screens at once. It ran for two consecutive evenings and the second evening (when I was there) The Queen attended. I didn’t get her autograph though.
September 29, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I understand you are somewhat of a viticulturist: