A week is a time unit equal to seven days.

The English word week continues an Old English ''wice'', ultimately from a Common Germanic '''', from a root '''' "turn, move, change". The Germanic word probably had a wider meaning prior to the adoption of the Roman calendar, perhaps "succession series", as suggested by Gothic ''wikō'' translating ''taxis'' "order" in Luke 1:8.

The term "week" is sometimes expanded to refer to other time units comprising a few days. Such "weeks" of between four and ten days have been used historically in various places. Intervals longer than 10 days are not usually termed "weeks" as they are closer in length to the fortnight or the month than to the seven-day week.

Seven-day week

Evidence of continuous use of a seven-day week appears with the Jews during the Babylonian Captivity of the 6th century BC. Both Judaism (based on the Creation narrative in the Torah/Bible) and ancient Babylonian religions used a seven-day week. Other cultures adopted the seven-day week at different times. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight-day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. Hindus may have adopted a seven day week as early as the 1st century BC. There is evidence of some Chinese groups using a seven day week as early as 4th century AD.

Systems derived from the seven-day week

Soviet Union

Between 1929 and 1931 the USSR changed from the seven-day week to a five-day week. There were 72 weeks and an additional five national holidays inserted within three of them totaling a year of 365 days.

In 1931, after the Soviet Union's five-day week they changed to a six-day week. Every sixth day (6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th) of the Gregorian Calendar was a state rest day. The five additional national holidays in the earlier five-day week remained and did not fall on the state rest day.

But as January, March, May, July, August, October and December have 31 days, the week after the state rest day of the 30th was seven days long (31st–7th). This extra day was a working day for most or an extra holiday for others.

Also as February is only 28 or 29 days depending on whether it is a leap year or not, the first of March was also made a state rest day, although not every enterprise conformed to this.

To clarify, the week after the state rest day, 24/25 February to 1 March, was only five or six days long, depending on whether it was a leap year or not. The week after that, 2 to 6 March, was only five days long.

The calendar was abandoned 26 June 1940 and the seven-day week reintroduced the day after.

Decimal calendar

A 10-day week, called ''décade'', was used in France for nine and a half years from October 1793 to April 1802; furthermore, the Paris Commune adopted the Revolutionary Calendar for 18 days in 1871.

Christian "eighth day"

For early Christians, Sunday, as well as being the first day of the week, was also the spiritual eighth day, as it symbolised the new world created after Christ's resurrection. The concept of the eighth day was symbolic only and had no effect on the use of the seven-day week for calendar purposes. Justin Martyr wrote: "the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first". This does not set up an eight-day week, since the eighth day is also considered to be the first day of the next cycle (i.e., not the following day).

A period of eight days, starting and ending on a Sunday or starting on a major feast day and finishing on the same day of the week a (seven-day) week later, is called an octave. For centuries these were a major feature of the liturgical calendar, particularly of the Catholic Church, and some are still observed, though the number of such octaves has now been radically reduced. Some modern Church uses also preserve the idea of an eight-day period, starting and finishing on the same day of the week, and retain the name "octave" for them; for example, many churches observe an annual "Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity" on 18–25 January or in the week that begins with Pentecost Sunday. Organizations such as 8th Day Center for Justice, based out of Chicago, Illinois, use the concept in terms of social justice as well.

Hermetic lunar week

The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar is one of many proposed reforms to the Gregorian Calendar. The lunation is divided into the four moon phases and has six, seven, eight, or nine days depending on the actual time difference between the full moon, first quarter, new moon and last quarter.

"Weeks" in other calendars

Periods termed "weeks" in calendars unrelated to the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Three day

The names of the days of the week (''aste'') in Guipuscoan Basque point to an earlier three-day week. #''astelehena'' ("week-first", Monday) #''asteartea'' ("week-between", Tuesday) #''asteazkena'' ("week-last", Wednesday)

Four-day

The Igbo of Nigeria have a traditional calendar with a four-day week. This "market week" features prominently in the fiction of Chinua Achebe.

Five-day

The Javanese people of Indonesia have a five-day week known as the Pasaran cycle. This is still in use today and superimposed with seven-day week of the Gregorian calendar and Islamic calendar to become what is known as the 35-day Wetonan Cycle.

Six-day

The Akan people of West Africa have a 42-day cycle known as ''Adaduanan''. The ''Adaduanan'' cycle appears to be based on an older six-day week, still existent in some northern Guan communities such as the Nchumuru, on which is superimposed a seven-day week which may have been brought south with itinerant traders from the Savannah. The six-day week is referred to as ''Nanson'' (literally seven-days) and reflects the lack of zero in the numbering systems; the last day and the first day are both included when counting the days of a week.

Eight-day

Nundinal cycle

The ancient Etruscans developed an eight-day market week known as the nundinal cycle around the 8th or 7th century BC. This was passed on to the Romans no later than the 6th century BC. As Rome expanded, it encountered the seven-day week and for a time attempted to include both. The popularity of the seven-day rhythm won and the eight-day week disappeared forever.

The cycle of seven days, named after the sun, the moon, and the five planets visible to the naked eye, was already customary in the time of Justin Martyr, who wrote of the Christians meeting on the Day of the Sun (Sunday).

Emperor Constantine eventually established the seven-day week in the Roman calendar in AD 321.

Celts

It is believed the ancient celts of the British Isles used a nine-''night'' week. The moon was used to measure one day from another so nights were more significant. The nine nights divided nicely into a sidereal month of 27 nights. Each week of nine nights had eight days.

Nine-day

Baltic calendars

In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania used a solar-lunar calendar. The structure of this calendar was understood with the help of the so-called Gediminas Sceptre discovered in 1680.

Historical records give evidence that the week of the ancient Balts was nine days long. Thus, the sidereal month must have been divided into three parts.

Ten-day

China

The Chinese ten-day week went as far back as the Shang Dynasty (1200-1045 BC). The law in the Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) required officials of the empire to rest every five days, called ''mu'' (沐), while it was changed into 10 days in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907), called ''huan'' or ''xún'' (旬). Months were almost three weeks long (alternating 29 and 30 days to keep in line with the lunation). The weeks were labelled ''shàng xún'' (上旬), ''zhōng xún'' (中旬), and ''xià xún'' (下旬) which mean roughly "upper", "middle" and "lower" week.

Egypt

Ancient Egypt had a ten-day week, three weeks per month with ten extra days at the end of the year.

Revolutionary France

The French Republican Calendar consisted of three ten-day weeks in a month called ''décades''

Other calendar intervals

Aztecs

The Aztecs divided a ritual cycle of 260 days, known as Tonalpohualli, into 20 weeks of 13 days known as Trecena.

The Aztecs divided a solar year of 365 days, Xiuhpohualli, into 18 periods of 20 days and five nameless days known as ''Nemontemi''. Although some call this 20-day division or grouping a month, it has no relation to a lunation and therefore the word "week" is more appropriate.

Maya

The Maya divided a 260-day ritual cycle known Tzolk'in into 20 weeks of 13 days known as Trecena.

The Maya also divided the year, Haab', into 18 periods of 20 days, ''Uinal'', and five nameless days known as ''Wayeb'''.

Bali, Indonesia

The Pawukon is a 210-day calendar consisting of 10 different concurrent weeks of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 days.

References

Further reading

External links

Englisc Rímbóc: The Anglo-Saxon Calendar

Category:Units of time

af:Week als:Woche ar:أسبوع an:Semana arc:ܫܒܘܥܐ frp:Semana ast:Selmana gn:Arapokõindy az:Həftə bn:সপ্তাহ zh-min-nan:Lé-pài (sî-kan) ba:Аҙна be:Тыдзень be-x-old:Тыдзень bh:सप्ताह bs:Sedmica br:Sizhun bg:Седмица ca:Setmana cv:Эрне cs:Týden co:Sittimana cy:Wythnos da:Uge pdc:Woch de:Woche et:Nädal el:Εβδομάδα eml:Smàna myv:Тарго es:Semana eo:Semajno ext:Semana eu:Aste fa:هفته hif:Hafta fo:Vika fr:Semaine fy:Wike fur:Setemane gl:Semana gan:禮拜 got:𐍅𐌹𐌺𐍉 ko:주 (시간) hi:सप्ताह hr:Tjedan io:Semano id:Pekan ia:Septimana os:Къуыри is:Vika it:Settimana he:שבוע jv:Saptawara kn:ವಾರ krc:Ыйыкъ ka:კვირა (დრო) kk:Апта kw:Seythen rw:Icyumweru sw:Juma kv:Вежон kg:Mposo ht:Semèn lad:Semana lbe:Нюжмар (арулва гьант) lo:ອາທິດ la:Hebdomas lv:Nedēļa lt:Savaitė ln:Mpɔ́sɔ hu:Hét (naptár) mk:Седмица mg:Herinandro ml:ആഴ്ച arz:اسبوع ms:Minggu nah:Chicōntōnalli nl:Week nds-nl:Weke ne:हप्ता new:वाः ja:週 ce:Кlира no:Ukedager nn:Veke nrm:Semanne oc:Setmana uz:Hafta pnb:اٹھوارہ pms:Sman-a tpi:Wik nds:Week pl:Tydzień pt:Semana kbd:Махуэ Гъэпс ro:Săptămână qu:Simana rue:Тыждень ru:Неделя se:Vahkku sc:Chida sco:Week stq:Wiek sq:Java (kalendar) simple:Week sk:Týždeň cu:Сєдмица sl:Teden szl:Tydźyń so:Todobaad ckb:ھەفتە sr:Седмица sh:Sedmica fi:Viikko sv:Vecka tl:Linggo (panahon) ta:கிழமை tt:Атна th:สัปดาห์ tg:Ҳафта tr:Hafta tk:Hepde uk:Тиждень ur:ہفتہ (وقت کی اکائی) vi:Tuần fiu-vro:Nätäl war:Semana wo:Ayubés yi:וואָך yo:Ọ̀sẹ̀ zh-yue:星期 bat-smg:Nedielė zh:星期

Coordinates	4°36′00″N101°4′00″N
Name	Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
Birth place	Paddington, London, England
Death place	Nyeri, Kenya
Nickname	B-P
Branch	British Army
Serviceyears	1876–1910
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Commands	Chief of Staff, Second Matabele War (1896–1897)5th Dragoon Guards in India (1897)Inspector General of Cavalry, England (1903)
Battles	Anglo-Ashanti Wars, Second Matabele War, Siege of Mafeking, Second Boer War
Awards	Ashanti Star (1895),Matabele Campaign, British South Africa Company Medal (1896),Queen's South Africa Medal (1899), King's South Africa Medal ( 1902),Boy Scouts Silver WolfBoy Scouts Silver Buffalo Award (1926),World Scout Committee Bronze Wolf (1935),Großes Dankabzeichen des ÖPB (1927)Großes Ehrenzeichen der Republik am Bande (1931)Goldene Gemse (1931) Grand-Cross in the Order of Orange-Nassau (1932),Order of Merit (1937),Wateler Peace Prize (1937)Order of St Michael and St George,Royal Victorian Order,Order of the Bath
Laterwork	Founder of the international Scouting Movement; writer; artist
Signature	Baden-Powell_signature.svg }}

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB (; 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement.

After having been educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. Based on those earlier books, he wrote ''Scouting for Boys'', published in 1908 by Pearson, for youth readership. During writing, he tested his ideas through a camping trip on Brownsea Island with the local Boys' Brigade and sons of his friends that began on 1 August 1907, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.

After his marriage to Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died and was buried in 1941.

Early life

Baden-Powell was born as Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, or more familiarly as Stephe Powell, at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11 Stanhope Terrace), Paddington in London, on 22 February 1857. He was named for his godfather, Robert Stephenson, the railway and civil engineer; his third name was his mother's maiden name. His father Reverend Baden Powell, a Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, already had four teenage children from the second of his two previous marriages. On 10 March 1846 at St Luke's Church, Chelsea, Reverend Powell married Henrietta Grace Smyth (3 September 1824 – 13 October 1914), eldest daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth and 28 years his junior. Quickly they had Warington (early 1847), George (late 1847), Augustus (1849) and Francis (1850). After three further children who died when very young, they had Stephe, Agnes (1858) and Baden (1860). The three youngest children and the often ill Augustus were close friends. Reverend Powell died when Stephe was three, and as tribute to his father and to set her own children apart from their half-siblings and cousins, the mother changed the family name to ''Baden-Powell''. Subsequently, Stephe was raised by his mother, a strong woman who was determined that her children would succeed. Baden-Powell would say of her in 1933 "The whole secret of my getting on, lay with my mother."

After attending Rose Hill School, Tunbridge Wells, during which his favourite brother Augustus died, Stephe Baden-Powell was awarded a scholarship to Charterhouse, a prestigious public school. His first introduction to Scouting skills was through stalking and cooking game while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds. He also played the piano and violin, was an ambidextrous artist, and enjoyed acting. Holidays were spent on yachting or canoeing expeditions with his brothers.

Military career

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, as he styled himself then, joined the 13th Hussars in India with the rank of lieutenant. He enhanced and honed his military scouting skills amidst the Zulu in the early 1880s in the Natal province of South Africa, where his regiment had been posted, and where he was Mentioned in Despatches. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king Dinizulu, which was later incorporated into the Wood Badge training programme he started after he founded the Scouting Movement. Baden-Powell's skills impressed his superiors and he was Brevetted Major as Military Secretary and senior Aide-de-camp of the Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Malta, his uncle General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth. He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the Mediterranean for the Director of Military Intelligence. He frequently travelled disguised as a butterfly collector, incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings.

Baden-Powell returned to Africa in 1896 to aid the British South Africa Company colonials under siege in Bulawayo during the Second Matabele War. This was a formative experience for him not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in Matobo Hills, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here. It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who introduced Baden-Powell to the American Old West and ''woodcraft'' (i.e., scoutcraft), and here that he wore his signature Stetson campaign hat and kerchief for the first time. After Rhodesia, Baden-Powell took part in a successful British invasion of Ashanti, West Africa in the Fourth Ashanti War, and at the age of 40 was promoted to lead the 5th Dragoon Guards in 1897 in India. A few years later he wrote a small manual, entitled ''Aids to Scouting,'' a summary of lectures he had given on the subject of military scouting, to help train recruits. Using this and other methods he was able to train them to think independently, use their initiative, and survive in the wilderness.

Baden-Powell was accused of illegally executing a prisoner of war, Matabele chief Uwini, in 1896, who had been promised his life would be spared if he surrendered. Uwini was shot by firing squad under Baden-Powell's instructions. Baden-Powell was cleared by an inquiry, and later claimed he was "released without a stain on my character".

Baden-Powell returned to South Africa prior to the Second Boer War and was engaged in further military actions against the Zulus. By this time, he had been promoted to be the youngest colonel in the British Army. He was responsible for the organisation of a force of Legion of Frontiersmen to assist the regular army. While arranging this, he was trapped in the Siege of Mafeking, and surrounded by a Boer army, at times in excess of 8,000 men. Although wholly outnumbered, the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days. Much of this is attributable to cunning military deceptions instituted at Baden-Powell's behest as commander of the garrison. Fake minefields were planted and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding non-existent barbed wire while moving between trenches. Baden-Powell did most of the reconnaissance work himself. In one instance noting that the Boers had not removed the rail line, Baden-Powell loaded an armoured locomotive with sharpshooters and successfully sent it down the rails into the heart of the Boer encampment and back again in a strategic attempt to decapitate the Boer leadership.

Contrary views of Baden-Powell's actions during the Siege of Mafeking pointed out that his success in resisting the Boers was secured at the expense of the lives of the native African soldiers and civilians, including members of his own African garrison. Pakenham stated that Baden-Powell drastically reduced the rations to the natives' garrison. However, in 2001, after subsequent research, Pakenham decidedly retreated from this position.

During the siege, a cadet corps, consisting of white boys below fighting age, was used to stand guard, carry messages, assist in hospitals and so on, freeing the men for military service. Although Baden-Powell did not form this cadet corps himself, and there is no evidence that he took much notice of them during the Siege, he was sufficiently impressed with both their courage and the equanimity with which they performed their tasks to use them later as an object lesson in the first chapter of ''Scouting for Boys''. The siege was lifted in the Relief of Mafeking on 16 May 1900. Promoted to major-general, Baden-Powell became a national hero. After organising the South African Constabulary, the national police force, he returned to England to take up a post as Inspector General of Cavalry in 1903. In 1907 he was appointed to command a division in the newly-formed Territorial Force.

In 1910 Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army reputedly on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command was given him, for, as Lord Kitchener said: "he could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts." It was widely rumoured that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to inculcate the myth.

Scouting movement

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, ''Aids to Scouting'', had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organisations. Following his involvement in the Boys' Brigade as Brigade Secretary and Officer in charge of its scouting section, with encouragement from his friend, William Alexander Smith, Baden-Powell decided to re-write ''Aids to Scouting'' to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held a camp on Brownsea Island for twenty-two boys from local Boys Brigade companies and sons of friends of Baden-Powell's from public schools Eton and Harrow to test out the applicability of his ideas. Baden-Powell was also influenced by Ernest Thompson Seton, who founded the Woodcraft Indians. Seton gave Baden-Powell a copy of his book ''The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians'' and they met in 1906. The first book on the Scout Movement, Baden-Powell's ''Scouting for Boys'' was published in six instalments in 1908, and has sold approximately 150 million copies as the fourth best-selling book of the 20th century.

Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession. The Scouting Movement was to grow up in friendly parallel relations with the Boys' Brigade. A rally for all Scouts was held at Crystal Palace in London in 1909, at which Baden-Powell discovered the first Girl Scouts. The Girl Guide Movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend, Juliette Gordon Low, was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to America, where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

In 1920, the 1st World Scout Jamboree took place in Olympia, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. Baden-Powell was created a Baronet in the 1921 New Year Honours and Baron Baden-Powell, of Gilwell, in the County of Essex, on 17 September 1929, Gilwell Park being the International Scout Leader training centre. After receiving this honour, Baden-Powell mostly styled himself "Baden-Powell of Gilwell".

In 1929, during the 3rd World Scout Jamboree, he received as a present a new 20 horse power Rolls-Royce car (chassis number GVO-40, registration OU 2938) and an Eccles Caravan. This combination well served the Baden-Powells in their further travels around Europe. The caravan was nicknamed Eccles and is now on display at Gilwell Park. The car, nicknamed Jam Roll, was sold after his death by Olave Baden-Powell in 1945. Jam Roll and Eccles were reunited at Gilwell for the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007. Recently it has been purchased on behalf of Scouting and is owned by a charity, B-P Jam Roll Ltd. Funds are being raised to repay the loan that was used to purchase the car. Baden-Powell also had a positive impact on improvements in youth education. Under his dedicated command the world Scouting Movement grew. By 1922 there were more than a million Scouts in 32 countries; by 1939 the number of Scouts was in excess of 3.3 million.

At the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his farewell to Scouting, and retired from public Scouting life. 22 February, the joint birthday of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, continues to be marked as Founder's Day by Scouts and Thinking Day by Guides to remember and celebrate the work of the Chief Scout and Chief Guide of the World.

In his final letter to the Scouts, Baden-Powell wrote:

...I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too. I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man. Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one. But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy — stick to your Scout Promise always — even after you have ceased to be a boy — and God help you to do it.

Personal life

In January 1912, Baden-Powell met Olave St Clair Soames, on the ocean liner, ''Arcadian'', heading for New York to start one of his Scouting World Tours. She was 23, while he was 55; they shared the same birthday, 22 February. They became engaged in September of the same year, causing a media sensation due to Baden-Powell's fame. To avoid press intrusion, they married in secret on 31 October 1912, at St Peter's Church in Parkstone. The Scouts of England each donated a penny to buy Baden-Powell a wedding gift, a car (note that this is not the Rolls-Royce they were presented with in 1929). There is a monument to their marriage inside St Mary's Church, Brownsea Island.

Baden-Powell and Olave lived in Pax Hill near Bentley, Hampshire from about 1919 until 1939. The Bentley house was a gift of her father. Directly after he had married, Baden-Powell began to suffer persistent headaches, which were considered by his doctor to be of psychosomatic origin and treated with dream analysis. The headaches disappeared upon his moving into a makeshift bedroom set up on his balcony. The Baden-Powells had three children, one son and two daughters, who all acquired the courtesy title of "The Honourable" in 1929 as children of a baron. The son succeeded his father in 1941 to the Baden-Powell barony and the title of Baron Baden-Powell.

Arthur Robert Peter (Peter), later 2nd Baron Baden-Powell (1913–1962). He married Carine Crause-Boardman in 1936, and had three children: Robert Crause, later 3rd Baron Baden-Powell; David Michael (Michael), current heir to the titles, and Wendy.

Heather (1915–1986), who married John King and had two children: Michael, who died in the sinking of SS Heraklion, and Timothy;

Betty (1917–2004), who married Gervas Charles Robert Clay in 1936 and had a daughter: Gillian, and three sons: Robin, Nigel and Crispin.

In addition, when Olave's sister Auriol Davidson née Soames died in 1919, Olave and Robert took her three nieces, Christian (1912–1975), Clare (1913–1980), and Yvonne, (1918–1995?), into their family and brought them up as their own children. In 1939, he and his wife moved to a cottage he had commissioned in Nyeri, Kenya, near Mount Kenya, where he had previously been to recuperate. The small one-room house, which he named ''Paxtu'', was located on the grounds of the Outspan Hotel, owned by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, Baden-Powell's first private secretary and one of the first Scout inspectors. Walker also owned the Treetops Hotel, approx 17 km out in the Aberdare Mountains, often visited by Baden-Powell and people of the Happy Valley set. The Paxtu cottage is integrated into the Outspan Hotel buildings and serves as a small Scouting museum.

Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre, which is the trail sign for "Going home", or "I have gone home": When his wife Olave died, her ashes were sent to Kenya and interred beside her husband. Kenya has declared Baden-Powell's grave a national monument.

Personal beliefs

Tim Jeal, who wrote the biography ''Baden-Powell'', argues that Baden-Powell's distrust of communism led to his implicit support, through naïveté, of fascism. In 1939 Baden-Powell noted in his diary: "Lay up all day. Read ''Mein Kampf''. A wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organisation etc. – and ideals which Hitler does not practise himself." Baden-Powell admired Benito Mussolini early in the Italian fascist leader's career.

Some very early Scouting "Thanks" badges had a swastika symbol on them. According to biographer Michael Rosenthal, Baden-Powell used the swastika because he was a Nazi sympathiser. Jeal, however, argues that Baden-Powell was naïve of the symbol's growing association with fascism and maintained that his use of the symbol related to its earlier, original meaning of "good luck" in Sanskrit, for which purpose the symbol had been used for centuries prior to the rise of fascism. In conflict with the idea that Powell was a Nazi supporter is the fact that Baden-Powell was a target of the Nazi regime in the Black Book, which listed individuals who were to be arrested during and after an invasion of Great Britain as part of Operation Sea Lion. Scouting was regarded as a dangerous spy organisation by the Nazis. Baden-Powell used the swastika as a "Thanks" badge for the Scout Movement well before Hitler used it, and when Hitler did start to use it, Baden-Powell ceased to use it. Previously, the swastika had been used by Rudyard Kipling as a logo on his books.

Artist and writer

Baden-Powell made paintings and drawings almost every day of his life. Most have a humorous or informative character. He published books and other texts during his years of military service both to finance his life and to educate his men.

Baden-Powell was regarded as an excellent storyteller. During his whole life he told 'ripping yarns' to audiences. After having published ''Scouting for Boys'', Baden-Powell kept on writing more handbooks and educative materials for all Scouts, as well as directives for Scout Leaders. In his later years, he also wrote about the Scout Movement and his ideas for its future. He spent the last decade of his life in Africa, and many of his later books had African themes. Currently, many pages of his field diary, complete with drawings, are on display at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, Texas.

Sexuality

Early discussion of Baden-Powell's sexuality focused on his relationship with his close friend Kenneth McLaren. Tim Jeal's later biography discusses the relationship and concludes that there is no conclusive evidence that this friendship was physical. Jeal then examines Baden-Powell's views on women, his appreciation of the male form, his military relationships and his marriage, indicating that Baden-Powell could be a repressed homosexual. Jeal's conclusion is shared by some biographers and disputed by others, but not yet examined in any detail by scholars.

Works

;Military books

1884: ''Reconnaissance and Scouting''

1885: ''Cavalry Instruction''

1889: ''Pigsticking or Hoghunting''

1896: ''The Downfall of Prempeh''

1897: ''The Matabele Campaign''

1899: ''Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os and Men''

1900: ''Sport in War''

1901: ''Notes and Instructions for the South African Constabulary''

1914: ''Quick Training for War''

;Scouting books

1908: ''Scouting for Boys''

1909: ''Yarns for Boy Scouts''

1912: ''The Handbook for the Girl Guides or How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire'' (co-authored with Agnes Baden-Powell)

1913: ''Boy Scouts Beyond The Sea: My World Tour''

1916: ''The Wolf Cub's handbook''

1918: ''Girl Guiding''

1919: ''Aids To Scoutmastership''

1921: ''What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns''

1922: ''Rovering to Success''

1929: ''Scouting and Youth Movements''

est 1929: ''Last Message to Scouts''

1935: ''Scouting Round the World''

;Other books

1905: ''Ambidexterity'' (co-authored with John Jackson)

1915: ''Indian Memories''

1915: ''My Adventures as a Spy'' 1916: ''Young Knights of the Empire: Their Code, and Further Scout Yarns''

1921: ''An Old Wolf's Favourites''

1927: ''Life's Snags and How to Meet Them''

1933: ''Lessons From the Varsity of Life''

1934: ''Adventures and Accidents''

1936: ''Adventuring to Manhood''

1937: ''African Adventures''

1938: ''Birds and beasts of Africa''

1939: ''Paddle Your Own Canoe''

1940: ''More Sketches Of Kenya''

;Sculpture 1905 ''John Smith''

Awards

In 1937 Baden-Powell was appointed to the Order of Merit, one of the most exclusive awards in the British honours system, and he was also awarded 28 decorations by foreign states, including the Grand Officer of the Portuguese Order of Christ, the Grand Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer (1920), the Commander of the French Légion d'honneur (1925), the First Class of the Hungarian Order of Merit (1929), the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog of Denmark, the Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix, and the Order of Polonia Restituta.

The Silver Wolf Award worn by Robert Baden-Powell is handed down the line of his successors, with the current Chief Scout, Bear Grylls wearing this original award.

The Bronze Wolf Award, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, was first awarded to Baden-Powell by a unanimous decision of the then ''International Committee'' on the day of the institution of the Bronze Wolf in Stockholm in 1935. He was also the first recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award in 1926, the highest award conferred by the Boy Scouts of America.

In 1927, at the Swedish National Jamboree he was awarded by the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund with the "''Großes Dankabzeichen des ÖPB''.

In 1931 Baden-Powell received the highest award of the First Austrian Republic (''Großes Ehrenzeichen der Republik am Bande'') out of the hands of President Wilhelm Miklas. Baden-Powell was also one of the first and few recipients of the ''Goldene Gemse'', the highest award conferred by the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund.

In 1931, Major Frederick Russell Burnham dedicated Mount Baden-Powell in California to his old Scouting friend from forty years before. Today their friendship is honoured in perpetuity with the dedication of the adjoining peak, Mount Burnham.

Baden-Powell was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on numerous occasions, including 10 separate nominations in 1928.

As part of the Scouting 2007 Centenary, Nepal renamed Urkema Peak to Baden-Powell Peak.

Styles

:''The family name legally changed from Powell to Baden-Powell by Royal Licence on 30 April 1902.''

1857–1860: Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell

1860–1876: Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1876: Sub-Lieutenant Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1876–1884: Lieutenant Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1884–1892: Captain Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1892–1896: Major Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1896-25 April 1897: Major (Bvt. Lieutenant-Colonel) Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

25 April – 7 May 1897: Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

7 May 1897–1901: Lieutenant-Colonel (Bvt. Colonel) Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1901–1902: Major-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

1902–1907: Major-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, CB

1907–12 October 1909: Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, CB

12 October – 9 November 1909: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, KCVO, CB

9 November 1909–1912: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, KCB, KCVO

1912–1923: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, KCB, KCVO, KStJ

1923–1927: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Bt, GCVO, KCB, KStJ

1927–1929: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Bt, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ

1929–1937: Lieutenant-General The Right Honourable The Lord Baden-Powell, Bt, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ

1937–1941: Lieutenant-General The Right Honourable The Lord Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ

See also

Baden-Powell House

Scouting memorials

Notes

Related readings: biographies

|location=London |publisher=Grant Richards |year=1900}}

External links

What would Baden-Powell do?

Category:Scouting pioneers Category:The Scout Association Category:Guiding Category:Recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award Category:British Army generals Category:13th Hussars officers Category:British spies Category:British military personnel of the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Category:People of the Second Matabele War Category:Pre–World War I spies Category:People from Paddington Category:Old Carthusians Category:Outdoor educators Category:English Anglicans Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Category:Knights of Grace of the Order of St John Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Knights of Christ Category:Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) Category:Commanders with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit (Hungary) Category:People of the Victorian era Category:People of the Edwardian era Category:5th Dragoon Guards officers Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion Category:Grand Commanders of the Order of the Redeemer Category:Recipients of the Silver Wolf Award Category:1857 births Category:1941 deaths

af:Robert Baden-Powell ar:بادن باول bn:রবার্ট ব্যাডেন পাওয়েল be-x-old:Робэрт Бадэн-Паўэл bg:Робърт Бейдън-Пауъл ca:Robert Baden-Powell cs:Robert Baden-Powell da:Robert Baden-Powell de:Robert Baden-Powell el:Ρόμπερτ Μπέηντεν-Πάουελ es:Robert Baden-Powell eo:Robert Baden-Powell fo:Robert Baden-Powell fr:Robert Baden-Powell gl:Robert Baden-Powell ko:로버트 베이든 파월 hy:Ռոբերտ Բեյդըն Փաուել hr:Robert Baden Powell id:Robert Baden-Powell it:Robert Baden-Powell he:רוברט באדן פאוול ht:Baden Powell la:Robertus Baden-Powell lv:Roberts Beidens-Pauels lb:Robert Baden-Powell lt:Robert Baden-Powell hu:Robert Baden-Powell ms:Robert Baden-Powell my:ရောဘတ် ဗေဒင်-ပိုရယ် nl:Robert Baden-Powell ja:ロバート・ベーデン＝パウエル no:Robert Baden-Powell nn:Robert Baden-Powell pl:Robert Baden-Powell pt:Robert Baden-Powell ro:Robert Baden-Powell ru:Бейден-Пауэлл, Роберт sco:Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell simple:Robert Baden-Powell sk:Robert Baden-Powell sl:Robert Baden-Powell sr:Роберт Бејден-Поуел sh:Robert Baden Powell fi:Robert Baden-Powell sv:Robert Baden-Powell ta:பேடன் பவல் th:โรเบิร์ต เบเดน โพเอลล์ uk:Роберт Бейден-Павелл ur:لارڈ بیڈن پاول vi:Robert Baden-Powell zh:羅伯特·貝登堡

Coordinates	4°36′00″N101°4′00″N
name	Tom Lehrer
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Andrew Lehrer
born	April 09, 1928New York, New York
instrument	VocalsPiano
occupation	Mathematician, teacher, lyricist, pianist, composer, singer/songwriter
years active	1945–1971, 1998
label	Reprise/Warner Bros. RecordsRhino/Atlantic RecordsShout! Factory
associated acts	Joe Raposo }}

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer (born April 9, 1928) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. Lehrer is best known for the pithy, humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s.

His work often parodies popular song forms, such as in "The Elements", where he sets the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Pirates of Penzance''. Lehrer's earlier work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor, seen in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs dealing with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show ''That Was The Week That Was''.

In the early 1970s, he retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and music theatre at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He did two additional performances in 1998 at a London gala show celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh.

Early life

Lehrer was born in 1928 to a Jewish family in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and began studying classical piano music at the age of seven. He was more interested in the popular music of the age, however. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher. At this early age, he began writing his own show tunes, which eventually helped him in his future adventures as a satirical composer and writer in his years of lecturing at Harvard University, and later at other universities.

Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He attended Camp Androscoggin, both as a camper and a counselor. While studying mathematics as an undergraduate student at Harvard College, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" (1945). Those songs were later named ''The Physical Revue'', a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, ''The Physical Review''.

Mathematics career

Lehrer earned his AB in mathematics (''magna cum laude'') from Harvard University in 1947, when he was nineteen. He received his MA degree the next year and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He taught classes at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley.

He remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time out for his musical career and to work as a researcher at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the National Security Agency. (Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jell-O Shot during this time, as a means of circumventing liquor restrictions.) All of these experiences eventually became fodder for songs, viz. "Fight Fiercely, Harvard", "The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be" and "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier". Despite holding a master's degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Four, which he described as being a "corporal without portfolio". In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time studies at Harvard, but he never completed his doctoral studies in mathematics.

From 1962, he taught in the political science department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching an introductory course entitled "The Nature of Mathematics" to liberal arts majors—"Math for Tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic.

In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class (on the topic of infinity, and which was said to go on forever) and retired from academia. He has remained in the area, and still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

His Erdős number is 4.

Mathematical publications

The American Mathematical Society database lists Lehrer as co-author of two papers:

RE Fagen & TA Lehrer, "Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter", ''Journal of the Society for Industrial Applied Mathematics'', vol. 6, pp. 1–14 (March 1958) T Austin, R Fagen, T Lehrer, W Penney, "The distribution of the number of locally maximal elements in a random sample", ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' vol. 28, pp. 786–790 (1957)

Musical career

Lehrer was mainly influenced by musical theater. According to Gerald Nachtman's book Seriously Funny, the broadway musical, "Let's Face It" (lyrics by Sylvia Fine; music by Cole Porter) made an early and lasting impression. Lehrer's style consists of parodying various forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set an unordered list of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".

Author Isaac Asimov recounted in his second autobiographical volume ''In Joy Still Felt'' of seeing Lehrer perform in a Boston nightclub on October 9, 1954, during which Lehrer sang very cleverly about Jim getting it from Louise, and Sally from Jim, "and after a while you gathered the 'it' to be venereal disease [the song was likely "I Got It From Sally (in later versions 'Agnes')"]. Suddenly, as the combinations grew more grotesque, you realized he was satirizing every perversion known to mankind without using a single naughty phrase. It was clearly unsingable (in those days) outside a nightclub." Asimov also recalled a song that dealt with the Boston subway system, making use of the stations leading into town from Harvard, observing that the local subject-matter rendered the song useless for general distribution. Lehrer subsequently granted Asimov permission to print the lyrics to the subway song in his book. "I haven't gone to nightclubs often," said Asimov, "but of all the times I have gone, it was on this occasion that I had by far the best time."

Lehrer was inspired by the success of his performances of his own songs, so he paid for some studio time to record ''Songs by Tom Lehrer''. At the time, radio stations would not give Lehrer air time because of his controversial subjects. Instead, he sold his album on campus at Harvard for three dollars, while "supportive record merchants and dorm newsstands bought copies…and marked them up fifty cents." After one summer, he also started to receive mail orders from all parts of the country (as far away as San Francisco, after ''The Chronicle'' wrote an article on the record). Interest in his recordings was spread by word of mouth; friends and supporters brought their records home and played them for their friends, who then also wanted a copy.

The album—which included the macabre "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", the mildly risqué "Be Prepared", and "Lobachevsky" (regarding plagiarizing mathematicians) became a cult success via word of mouth, despite being self-published and without promotion. Lehrer then embarked on a series of concert tours and recorded a second album, which was released in two versions: the songs were the same, but ''More of Tom Lehrer'' was studio-recorded, while ''An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer'' was recorded live in concert.

Lehrer's major breakthrough in the United Kingdom came as a result of the citation accompanying an honorary degree given to Princess Margaret, where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from Mozart to Tom Lehrer". This prompted significant interest in his works and helped secure distributors for his material in the UK. It was there that his music achieved real popularity, as a result of the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and the willingness of the BBC to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the United States).

By the early 1960s, Lehrer had retired from touring and was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of ''That Was The Week That Was'' (TW3), a satirical television show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as education ("New Math"), the Second Vatican Council ("The Vatican Rag"), race relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), air and water pollution ("Pollution"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"), World War III "pre-nostalgia" ("So Long, Mom", premiered by Steve Allen), and nuclear proliferation ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song that famously satirized the alleged amorality of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who had previously worked for Nazi Germany before working for the United States. ("'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun.") Lehrer did not appear on the television show; his songs were performed by a female vocalist and his lyrics were often altered by the network censors. Lehrer later performed the songs on the album, ''That Was The Year That Was'', so that, in his words, people could hear the songs the way they were intended to be heard.

In 1967, Lehrer was persuaded to make a short tour in Norway and Denmark, where he performed some of the songs from the television program. The performance in Oslo, Norway, on September 10 was recorded on video tape and aired locally later that autumn; this program was released on DVD some 40 years later.

Also around 1967, Lehrer composed and performed on piano original songs in a Dodge automobile "industrial" film that was distributed primarily to Dodge automobile dealers. It was also shown at promotional events organized by Dodge. Set in a fictional American wild west town, the full proper title of the film appears to be "The Dodge Rebellion Theatre presents Ballads For '67" Since the film is introducing 1967 model automobiles, it was possibly produced in late 1966.

The record deal with Reprise Records for the ''That Was The Year That Was'' album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings, as Lehrer wanted to wind up his own record imprint. The Reprise issue of ''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live ''Tom Lehrer Revisited'' CD instead. The [live] recording also included bonus tracks "L-Y" and "Silent E", which Lehrer wrote for the PBS children's educational series ''The Electric Company''. Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996. That same year, the album ''That Was The Year That Was'' went gold. The album liner notes (and Lehrer himself in one routine) promote Tom Lehrer's songs using reverse psychology, by deliberately quoting his negative reviews.

Departure from the music scene

There is an urban legend that Lehrer gave up political satire when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973. He did comment that awarding the prize to Kissinger made political satire obsolete, but has denied that he stopped creating satire thereafter as a form of protest, asserting that he had stopped several years prior to the award. Another mistaken belief is that he was sued for libel by the estate of Wernher Von Braun, the subject of one of his songs, and forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. Lehrer firmly denied this in a 2003 interview.

When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, in an interview in the book accompanying his CD box set (released in 2000), he cited a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did, and when he was not, he did not, and that after a while he simply lost interest. Although many of Lehrer's songs satirized the Cold War political establishment of the era, he stopped writing and performing just as the 1960s counterculture movement gained momentum.

Lehrer's musical career was brief; in an interview in the late 1990s, he pointed out that he had performed a mere 109 shows and written 37 songs over 20 years. Nevertheless, he developed a significant cult following both in the United States and abroad.

In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote ten songs for the children's television show ''The Electric Company''—Lehrer's Harvard schoolmate Joe Raposo was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.

Revivals and discographic reissues

In the early 1980s, ''Tom Foolery'', a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave the stage production his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production (such as "Who's Next", in which Neiman-Marcus [or in the San Francisco production, J.C. Penney], not Alabama, gets the bomb). ''Tom Foolery'' contained 27 Lehrer songs and led to more than 200 productions, including an off-Broadway production at the Village Gate, which ran for 120 performances in 1981.

In conjunction with the ''Tom Foolery'' premiere in 1980 at Criterion Theatre in London, Lehrer made a rare TV appearance on BBCs ''Parkinson'' show, where he sang "I Got It From Agnes".

On June 7 and 8, 1998, Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the gala show ''Hey, Mr. Producer!'' celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh, who had been the producer of ''Tom Foolery''. The June 8 show was his only performance before Queen Elizabeth II. Lehrer sang "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song "Who's Next?". The DVD of the event includes the former song.

In 2000, a boxed set of CDs, ''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'', was released by Rhino Entertainment. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, ''That Was The Year That Was'', the songs he wrote for ''The Electric Company'', and some previously unreleased material. It was accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by Dr. Demento and lyrics to all the songs.

In 2010, Shout! Factory launched a reissue campaign, making his long out-of-press albums available digitally. They also issued a CD/DVD combo called ''The Tom Lehrer Collection'', which includes his best-loved songs, plus a DVD featuring an Oslo concert.

Musical legacy

Lehrer has commented that he doubts his songs had any real effect on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted... I'm fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin kabaretts of the 1930s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War."

In 2003 he commented that his particular brand of political satire is more difficult in the modern world: "The real issues I don't think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all about Monica Lewinsky and all that stuff and not about the important things, like the fact that he wouldn't ban land mines... I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them."

In a phone call to Gene Weingarten of the ''Washington Post'' in February 2008, Lehrer instructed Weingarten to "Just tell the people that I am voting for Obama."

A play, ''Letters from Lehrer'', written by Canadian Richard Greenblatt, was performed by him at CanStage, from January 16 to February 25, 2006. It followed Lehrer's musical career, the meaning of several songs, the politics of the time, and Greenblatt's own experiences with Lehrer's music, while playing some of Lehrer's songs. There are currently no plans for more performances, although low-quality audio recordings have begun to circulate around the internet.

Some of his songs ("I Hold Your Hand in Mine" and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park") were reworked into German by the Austrian-Jewish singer satirist Georg Kreisler who lived in the United States from 1938 until 1955. Lehrer was praised by Dr. Demento as "the best musical satirist of the twentieth century". Other artists who cite Lehrer as an influence include "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects, and educator and scientist H. Paul Shuch, who tours under the stage name Dr. SETI and calls himself "a cross between Carl Sagan and Tom Lehrer: he sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer." More stylistically influenced performers include American political satirist Mark Russell, and the British duo Kit and The Widow. British medical satirists Amateur Transplants acknowledge the debt they owe to Tom Lehrer on the back of their first album, ''Fitness to Practice''. Their songs "The Menstrual Rag" and "The Drugs Song" are to the tunes of Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" and "The Elements" (itself set to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from ''The Pirates of Penzance'' by Gilbert and Sullivan), respectively. Their second album, ''Unfit to Practise'', opens with an update of Lehrer's "The Masochism Tango" and is called simply "Masochism Tango 2008". Syndicated conservative morning-radio talk show host Jim Quinn sings with piano backing in a Lehrer-like tribute in a song on how political correctness has destroyed so many Christmas traditions with the song "A Politically Correct Christmas".

Lehrer has said of his musical career, "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."

Music lists

Reviews selected by Lehrer for his liner notes

"Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste." — ''The New York Times'' (9 February 1959)

"More desperate than amusing" — ''New York Herald Tribune''

"He seldom has any point to make except obvious ones" — ''The Christian Science Monitor''

"Plays the piano acceptably" — ''The Oakland Tribune''

Solo discography

''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' (1953)

''More of Tom Lehrer'' (1959)

''An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer'' (1959)

''Revisited'' (1960) (1990 CD reissue includes 1971 studio recordings of ''Silent E'' and ''L-Y'')

''Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice Versa)'' (1960; Australia-only)

''That Was the Year That Was'' (1965)

''Tom Lehrer in Concert'' (1994; UK compilation)

''Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer'' (1997)

''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'' (2000)

''The Tom Lehrer Collection'' (2010)

Many Lehrer songs also are performed (but not by Lehrer) in ''That Was The Week That Was'' (Radiola LP, 1981)

The sheet music to many of Lehrer's songs is published in ''The Tom Lehrer Song Book'' (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1954) Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 54-12068 and ''Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer: with not enough drawings by Ronald Searle'' (Pantheon, 1981, ISBN 0-394-74930-8).

References

External links

That Was the Wit That Was Tom Lehrer interview in SF Weekly, published 2000-04-19, retrieved 2010-08-26

Tom Lehrer Annotated Song Lyrics, many with MIDI files, collected by Graeme Cree, retrieved 2011-04-13

59 minute long mp3 radio programme from 1983, with a telephone interview with Tom Lehrer, as well as a 10 minute follow-up 1989 From "Bob Claster's Funny Stuff" on KCRW, retrieved 2010-08-26

A Conversation with Tom Lehrer done by Paul D. Lehrman on September 7, 1997, retrieved 2010-08-26

Tom Lehrer page on The Demented Music Database - includes biography, discography, lyrics and other miscellanea, retrieved on 2011-01-23

Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century mathematicians Category:American male singers Category:American mathematicians Category:American novelty song performers Category:American satirists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pianists Category:American comedy musicians Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Comedy musicians Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Parody musicians Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Category:Horace Mann School alumni Category:United States Army soldiers Category:Jewish songwriters Category:Wellesley College faculty Category:Jewish comedians Category:American Jews Category:American Jews

ar:توم لهرر da:Tom Lehrer de:Tom Lehrer es:Tom Lehrer fr:Tom Lehrer he:טום לרר ht:Tom Lehrer nl:Tom Lehrer ja:トム・レーラー no:Tom Lehrer pt:Tom Lehrer ru:Лерер, Том sv:Tom Lehrer uk:Том Лерер

Coordinates	4°36′00″N101°4′00″N
name	David Heinemeier Hansson
birth date	October 15, 1979
birth place	Copenhagen, Denmark
residence	Chicago, IL
occupation	Programmer
employer	37signals
known for	Ruby On Rails
website	loudthinking.com }}

David Heinemeier Hansson (known to the Ruby community as DHH) is a Danish programmer and the creator of the popular Ruby on Rails web development framework and the Instiki wiki. He is also a partner at the web-based software development firm 37signals.

In 1999 Hansson founded and built a Danish online gaming news website and community called Daily Rush, which he ran until 2001.

In 2005 he was recognized by Google and O'Reilly with the Hacker of the Year award for his creation of Ruby on Rails. After graduating from the Copenhagen Business School and receiving his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Business Administration, he moved from Denmark to Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in November 2005.

Hansson co-wrote ''Agile Web Development with Rails'' with Dave Thomas in 2005 as part of The Facets of Ruby Series.

Hansson appeared on the cover of the July 2006 issue of ''Linux Journal'' which included an interview with him in the feature story 'Opinions on Opinionated Software'. In the same month, the now defunct Business 2.0 web magazine ranked him 34th among "50 people who matter now".

Personality

Hansson is known for the crude and brutal way he expresses his opinions, both online and in real life. One of the main criticisms of Hansson has been about his and his company's arrogance. Hansson accepts that he is arrogant.

Hansson is critical of enterprise software saying it is "not about technology or best practices". He created the web-development framework Ruby on Rails to free programmers from what he saw as repetitive coding inherent in platforms such as Java.

Hansson has expressed the view that women's low participation is not a result of what he called the "testosterone-powered alpha nature" of the programming world. The debate stemmed from a presentation made by a speaker at GoGaRuCo (the Golden Gate Ruby Conference) that included sexually suggestive slides. Hansson has received criticism for his endorsement of behavior seen as radical and crude.

In July 2010 it was revealed that Heinemeier Hansson was the person that had commissioned the one-off Pagani Zonda HH

Recognition

2005: Won Best Hacker of the Year 2005 at OSCON from Google and O'Reilly for the work on Rails. 2006: Accepted the Jolt award of product excellence for Rails 1.0.

See also

Instiki

Ruby on Rails

37signals

Agile Web Development with Rails

References

External links

Loud Thinking - Hansson's weblog

37signals

Ruby on Rails

Video of David Heinemeier Hansson presentation at Startup School

David Heinemeier Hansson interview on the Inside the Net Podcast

Martin Fowler and David Heinemeier Hansson interview on Hanselminutes Podcast

David Heinemeier Hansson interview in Danish on Builder.dk Podcast

Podcast interview with David Heinemeier Hansson on the Web 2.0 Show

Ruby on Rails video David Heinemeier Hansson explains Ruby on Rails at the university of Roskilde, in 2004

Keynote 2007 - RailsConf Europe 2007 - Berlin

RailsConf Keynote on REST. July 9, 2006

The Great Surplus - Keynote at RailsConf 2008 - Portland

Living with legacy software - Keynote at RailsConf Europe 2008 - Berlin

FLOSS Weekly podcast 79

Podcast interview with David Heinemeier Hansson on This Developer's Life

Category:Danish bloggers Category:Danish computer scientists Category:Danish computer programmers Category:Living people Category:1979 births Category:Danish expatriates in the United States Category:Copenhagen Business School alumni

ar:دافيد هاينماير هانسون de:David Heinemeier Hansson es:David Heinemeier Hansson eu:David Heinemeier Hansson fr:David Heinemeier Hansson ms:David Heinemeier Hansson pl:David Heinemeier Hansson ru:Ханссон, Давид Хейнемейер