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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span></b></span><br><br><<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer" target="_blank">http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer</a>><br>Looking For Tom Lehrer, Comedy's Mysterious Genius<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>My favorite Tom Lehrer is "The Vatican Rag": <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0&feature=kp">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0&feature=kp</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>And "The Elements":<br><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> John K Clark<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Clearly Lehrer had talent. How can a father explain to anyone born in this millennium 70s geek humor?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Fun aside for you who know what I am talking about with that comment. In the mid 1990s, I was looking to buy a rebuilt engine for my truck. I was on the phone to a local shop and the guy made a Doctor Demento reference. I was able to finish the sentence in unison with him and recite the next line. Immediately we started talking about those things only geeks would know. I realized his voice sounded a bit familiar, so then he started into some of the songs: he was a regular on Dr. Demento back in the 1970s when it was a live radio show in the Los Angeles area. He wrote some of the songs. Needless to say, he got the job on my truck.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Back then, that kind of humor had no commercial value: Weird Al Yankovic was the first one to really make it big from that era with that genre. So he and the others who were creating Demento-ish content never treated it as a job, just some offbeat hobby they were doing. So the guy learned auto mechanics and ended up owning a shop in Sunnyvale California twenty years after being a star on Doctor Demento. He was telling the truth: when I went to his shop he had a bunch of pictures on the wall of him and Weird Al together as teenagers on the Dr. Demento show. Of course when he even uttered the name Weird Al Yankovic, I removed my hat and spoke in low reverent tones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>He told me something I didn’t know: Weird Al is a monster brain. The guy with the auto shop was a couple years older, but they graduated high school together. He said Al Yankovic was the smartest guy he ever met, utterly without exception. Now is that cool or what? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Now how to I explain that to a seven year old? Do I even bother trying?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>