Lobachevsky

For many years now, mr. danny kaye, who has been my particular idol since childbirth, has been doing a routine about the great russian director stanislavsky and the secret of success in the acti

Ofession. and i thought it would be interesting to stea... to adapt this idea to the field of mathematics. i always like to make explicit the fact that before i went off not too long ago to figh

The trenches, i was a mathematician by profession. i don't like people to get the idea that i have to do this for a living. i mean, it isn't as though i had to do this, you know, i could be maki

H, 3000 dollars a year just teaching.



Be that as it may, some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they got that way, and here, in partial explanation perhaps, is the story of the great

Ian mathematician nicolai ivanovich lobachevsky.



Who made me the genius i am today,

The mathematician that others all quote,

Who's the professor that made me that way?

The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat.



One man deserves the credit,

One man deserves the blame,

And nicolai ivanovich lobachevsky is his name.

Hi!

Nicolai ivanovich lobach-



I am never forget the day i first meet the great lobachevsky.

In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:

Plagiarize!



Plagiarize,

Let no one else's work evade your eyes,

Remember why the good lord made your eyes,

So don't shade your eyes,

But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -

Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.



And ever since i meet this man

My life is not the same,

And nicolai ivanovich lobachevsky is his name.

Hi!

Nicolai ivanovich lobach-



I am never forget the day i am given first original paper

To write. it was on analytic and algebraic topology of

Locally euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable

Riemannian manifold.

Bozhe moi!

This i know from nothing.

But i think of great lobachevsky and get idea - ahah!



I have a friend in minsk,

Who has a friend in pinsk,

Whose friend in omsk

Has friend in tomsk

With friend in akmolinsk.

His friend in alexandrovsk

Has friend in petropavlovsk,

Whose friend somehow

Is solving now

The problem in dnepropetrovsk.



And when his work is done -

Ha ha! - begins the fun.

From dnepropetrovsk

To petropavlovsk,

By way of iliysk,

And novorossiysk,

To alexandrovsk to akmolinsk

To tomsk to omsk

To pinsk to minsk

To me the news will run,

Yes, to me the news will run!



And then i write

By morning, night,

And afternoon,

And pretty soon

My name in dnepropetrovsk is cursed,

When he finds out i publish first!



And who made me a big success

And brought me wealth and fame?

Nicolai ivanovich lobachevsky is his name.

Hi!

Nicolai ivanovich lobach -



I am never forget the day my first book is published.

Every chapter i stole from somewhere else.

Index i copy from old vladivostok telephone directory.

This book was sensational!

Pravda - well, pravda - pravda said: (russian double-talk)

It stinks.

But izvestia! izvestia said: (russian double-talk)

It stinks.

Metro-goldwyn-moskva buys movie rights for six million rubles,

Changing title to 'the eternal triangle',

With brigitte bardot playing part of hypotenuse.



And who deserves the credit?

And who deserves the blame?

Nicolai ivanovich lobachevsky is his name.

Hi!


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