Fame is a drug, fed by attention, applause and money. Those who become addicted sometimes have a desperate need to hold on, even as the talents that brought renown begin to fade and eventually disappear.

Which brings me to Tom Lehrer.

He died on July 26 at 97, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had once been a student at Harvard University and taught there too. He had been out of the public eye for decades, but his death prompted a New York Times obituary that covered almost an entire page of that newspaper and the internet was filled with memories.

Former local sportswriter Ron Rapoport wrote on Facebook that “much of my generation felt a special sadness (at the news of his death) … Lehrer was the greatest satirical songwriter of his time and he wrote the background music

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