I hope you’re all fans out Tom Lehrer (“Mr. Lehrer’s muse [is] not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.” – NYT, apparently). Well, via those Improbable Research (“Mr. Abraham’s muse [is] not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.” – NYT, possibly) comes a new old version of Lehrer’s classic The Elements:
The lyrics are below the fold.
There’s Sb, As, Al, Se,
& H & O & N & Re,
& Ni, Nd, Np, Ge,
& Fe, Am, Ru, U,
Eu, Zr, Lu, V,
& Lsa & Os & At & Ra,
& Au & Pa & In & Ga,
& I & Th & Tm & Tl.
There’s Y Yb, Ac Rb,
& B, Gd, Nb, Ir,
& Sr & Si & Ag & Sm,
& Bi, Br, Li, Be, & Ba.
There’s Ho & He & Hf & Er,
& P & Fr & Fl & Tb,
& Mn & Hg, Mo, Mg,
Dy & Sc & Ce & Cs.
And Pb, Pr, and Pt, Pu,
Pd, Pm, K, Po,
& Ta, tc, Ti, te,
And Cd and Ca and Cr and Cm.
There’s S, Cf, & Fm, Bk,
& also Md, Es, No,
& Ar, Kr, Ne, Rn, Xe, Zn, & Rh,
& Cl, C, Co, Cu, W, Sn, & Na.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven’t been discovered.
When I was about fourteen I could sing the whole of the song by heart, in authentic Lehrer-ese accent. Sad but true. I can still do the first verse.
Talking of which, Lanthanum (line 6) is La, not Ls.
I think I can just about manage the older version.
Thanks for the correction. I now know who to ask if I need something checking very carefully.
It only works for chemical symbols. The curse of a Chemistry first degree.