I find it interesting that he returned to teaching maths later in life - quoting from the Independent: He began to teach part-time at Santa Cruz in the 1970s, mainly to escape the harsh New England winters. From time to time, he acknowledged, a student would enrol in one of his classes based on knowledge of his songs.“But it's a real math class,” he said at the time. “I don't do any funny theorems. So those people go away pretty quickly.”Also interesting that he never completed his PhD even though at Harvard he obtained his maths degree at the age of 18 and his masters degree a year later; a quote for PBS news: “I spent many, many years satisfying all the requirements, as many years as possible, and I started on the thesis,” he once said. “But I just wanted to be a grad student, it’s a wonderful life. That’s what I wanted to be, and unfortunately, you can’t be a PhD and a grad student at the same time.” Too many satirical, musical distractions? (Perhaps he should have followed Sir Brian May's example and completed his doctorate in later life, although in Lehrer's case someone else may have picked up and already covered the same work in statistics and probability?)
Michael Ixer ● 16d