A few more notes about Tom L

Tom Lehrer passed away on July 26, 2025, at the age of 97. I wrote a blog-obit here. One of my readers read the post and went down a rabbit hole (or did he?), which lead to a blog post about rabbit holes here. 

A few more notes about Tom L.

1) When someone of interest to our readers dies, Lance calls me (he seems to always know before I do) to discuss who should do the obit (me, him, someone else, or perhaps no obit needed). This was a case where there was no need for a discussion.  To say I am a fan of novelty songs would be an understatement---I've been a fan of novelty songs before I was a fan of mathematics. A link to my website of novelty songs by topic, including Math, is here

2) Whenever Lance calls I answer with Who Died? 

3) Who was the oldest novelty song singer to die in the Summer of 2025? The summer is not over yet but I think the answer is known. And it's NOT Tom L!

Jane Morgan, a singer, died on August 4, 2025, at the age of 101.  She recorded a parody of  Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue titled A Girl Named Johnny Cash 

A boy named sue:  here

A girl named Johnny Cash: here

Wikipedia Page for Jane Morgan: here

To my knowledge, Jane Morgan only had that one novelty song so calling her a novelty singer is a stretch, but its a great song, so I will call her a novelty singer.  (I checked if the flipside of that song was a novely song. It was Charley, a love song, not a novelty song. Ask your grandparents what a flipside is.) 

4) Tom Lehrer and Jim Lehrer (news anchor on PBS, deceased) are not related.

I googled how many people have last name Lehrer

Google-AI:  FamilySearch.org estimates there are 211,503 records for the surname.

But this website says approximately 5982 bear this surname.

I'm surprised by the large gap there.

5) There have been more elements found since Tom L did The Elements. I wondered whether someone updated it. Of course they did:

The Original by Tom L: here

Updated version by Leonard  Lehrman that has the latest element, Number 118, Oganesson: here

I've heard that 118 is natural barrier- we probably won't create 119 or higher. Elements that high are created, not discovered. They also don't last long. 

6) There are many elements, so a list-song made sense. There are a lot of complexity classes, so a list-song makes sense for those as well. 

Dave Barrington sings Song of the Complexity Classes: here

7) How many people emailed me to tell me that Tom L passed away? R(5).

8) One of my favorite and less known Tom L songs whose advice he did not take: Selling Out

9) Tom L wrote a paper with R.E. Fagen (Not Ronald Fagin) for the NSA. It's a real math paper, but note the third reference in the bibliography, the paper is here.