The Last Continent (Terry David John Pratchett) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги

8

‘Lydia the Tattooed Lady’ is one of Groucho Marx’ most famous songs, originally performed in the 1939 Marx Brothers movie At the Circus. Kermit the Frog did a great cover of ‘Lydia’ on the Connie Stevens episode of The Muppet Show.

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?

Lydia The Tattooed Lady.

She has eyes that folks adore so,

And a torso even more so.

Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia,

Oh Lydia The Queen of Tattoo.

On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.

Beside it, The Wreck of the Hesperus, too.

And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue,

You can learn a lot from Lydia!

Teaching artifical intelligences to sing songs, recite poetry, or tell jokes is a well-established science fiction theme, with probably the most famous example being HAL in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey reverting back to his ‘childhood’ and singing ‘Daisy’ for Bowman. Possibly, that scene might not have been quite as poignant had HAL sung ‘Lydia’, instead…