Wednesday, April 9th, was the 97th birthday of one our favorite humans on earth — Thomas Andrew Lehrer.

He is not a famous entertainer. He is not a prize-winning composer or lyricist. He is not a movie star, Broadway star or on television.

He graduated from Harvard at age 18 and has been teaching pretty much ever since.

He doesn’t have a doctorate, but has written about three dozen or so songs.

He grew up on radio like most people my age, and listened to Gilbert and Sullivan, the Marx Brothers and the Gershwins.

Note: If you recognize more than half of the names in this piece, you are either as old as I am or your parents or grandparents were very weird.

On the 9th, our Thursday Group of friends celebrated Lehrer’s 97th birthday with some of his songs, ending with one of the better rags ever composed, “The Vatican Rag.”

We dedicated the tune to Pope Francis as he recovers, as many of us are, from various ailments related to time and travel.

The tunes are uncomplicated, but the lyrics are clever, with........

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