Comments

  2. tbp1 says

    Every freakin’ day of this long national nightmare I have wondered what Molly Ivins would have had to say about it.

    Also, what songs Phil Ochs might have written.

    It’s a pity Tom Lehrer stopped writing songs so long ago, too, although he is apparently still with us.

  3. Hairhead, Still Learning at 59 says

    When asked about why he no longer wrote topical songs of social satire, Mr. Lehrer replied, (I am paraphrasing here) “Once they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize, satire no longer existed.” (Or something like that.)

    Mr. Lehrer is still with us, his home phone NOT unlisted, but he feels no need to write songs anymore, despite his lasting popularity.

  4. handsomemrtoad says

    Wagner on hurting oneself, from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg:

    “Wahn! Wahn!
    Überall Wahn!
    Wohin ich forschend blick’,
    in Stadt- und Weltchronik,
    den Grund mir aufzufinden,
    warum gar bis aufs Blut
    die Leut’ sich quälen und schinden
    in unnütz toller Wut!
    Hat keiner Lohn
    noch Dank davon:
    in Flucht geschlagen,
    wähnt er zu jagen;
    hört nicht sein eigen Schmerzgekreisch,
    wenn er sich wühlt ins eig’ne Fleisch,
    wähnt Lust sich zu erzeigen!”

    Translation:

    “Madness! Madness!
    Everywhere madness!
    Wherever I look searchingly
    in city and world chronicles,
    to seek out the reason
    why, till they draw blood,
    people torment and flay each other
    in useless, foolish anger!
    No-one has reward
    or thanks for it:
    driven to flight,
    he thinks he is hunting;
    hears not his own cry of pain;
    when he digs into his own flesh.”

  5. RobertL says

    Hairhead @3. The quote I first heard was that Lehrer “retired from satire, defeated, after they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize for bombing Cambodia “.