I must also report that my children (aged 10 and 14) have discovered and LOVE Tom Lehrer--who last I heard, is alive and well in Southern California. Does anyone have other information? We could use some new songs right about now! I think he has suitable material with this administration.

Last year I pulled out my CD (though I have many of the vinyl albums) and played "The Elements" for Caroline as something she could mention to her science teacher, and she loved it. I made the mistake of saying "what the heck" and playing the whole CD for them. :) I had a LOT of explaining to do! I would then notice the door to one of their bedrooms was shut and hear laughter emanating from behind it. I'd go in and find the two of them huddled around the CD player, listening intently and laughing hilariously. I finally burned them each their own copies so they wouldn't take mine over to their friends' houses any more. And I told them that IF they play these for their friends they have to explain them, and they might have to apologize to their friends' parents if they don't share the same liberal political views. Yup--I definitely had to explain a lot.

On the other hand, they listened and learned. Caroline, in a game called "Whiz Quiz" they play at school was totally annoyed when some kid jumped in with a guess answer of "Shakespeare" before she could answer "Oedipus" to the question "what play had a king who killed his father and married his mother. . ." She learned it here first! And they're never going to see drug dealers as "cool" after learning "The Old Dope Peddler." Disrespect and sarcasm--great teaching tools for children! (My parents must have thought so also, because they also played Lehrer for us upon demand when we were kids).

I heard the guys on Car Talk refer to a Lehrer song I didn't recognise--I thought I knew all of them. I'll have to dig out that note and look up the song. (It makes perfect sense that Click and Clack would also know all of the Lehrer songs!)

SRS