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Apparently my dad did the exact same thing in college in the 60s to win a bet.I basically know nothing about him or his collected works, but I memorized The Elements Song in full back in high school as a party trick so... props to him for that, I guess!
Tom Lehrer gave me a huge career boost.
In genetics class in college the professor referenced one of his songs, then quickly noticed a lot of blank stares. He stopped, then said "who knows who Tom Lehrer is?" and only myself and one other person did.
Later in the semester this very cool miniseries about DNA was airing on TV. One day after class I came up to him, gushed about the show and asked if he knew if the university usually bought access to things like that. He didn't know, then paused and said "weren't you one of the people who knew who Tom Lehrer was?" I said yes, and he immediately offered me a position in his lab as an honors undergraduate student, apparently he was unimpressed with all the applicants so far and looking to fill a spot and knew my grades were good and now I'd shown interest in science outside of just the classwork.
That lab position was one of the most formative science experiences for me and I'm forever grateful.
Well, to be fair it's a parody of the more well known Major General song from a Gilbert and Sullivan musical:I immediately recognized the melody from the Elements Song