Tom Lehrer
publication date: Thursday, June 6, 2019 (part of Summer 2019)
category: Music
clue: This satirist brought a bleak sensibility to his timely songs, on TV and off, before returning to his love of mathematics.
explanation: Lehrer earned a masters degree in mathematics, but so enjoyed writing and performing humorous songs that he made a career of it in the 1950s and 1960s, for a time performing songs about current events on That Was the Week That Was. He retired and began teaching math in the 1970s. more…
intended difficulty: medium
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Samir Mehta, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, Matthew Preston, Erik Bates, and Stan Iwanchuk