Mathematician,* banjo-player and New Lost City Rambler.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ob ... story.htmlAnd crucial link between the great folk scare and the full-bore folk revival.
Years ago I had a brief contact with him via the medium of banjo-L. I'd been listening to the 78-era Allen Bros recording
A New Salty Dog, and puzzling over the lyrics. I could tell - it's obvious - that I was hearing a euphemism, and from the tone it was likely risqué. But I had no idea what it might signify. So I asked the list, and Tom Paley, to the horror of some other members, enlightened me. Back in the 30s, he said, a Salty Dog was a practitioner of oral sex in general, and cunnilingis in particular. Most of the list had no idea. "Oh no, I played it in
church," one fellow wailed. I've always thought that was pretty funny.
*Actually, I first typed "methematician", which isn't what I meant
at all.