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Liz Publika

Valuable Life Lessons via They Might Be Giants: Educational songs to live, laugh, and learn to


Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (1990)



Istanbul was Constantinople Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night


Every gal in Constantinople Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople So if you've a date in Constantinople She'll be waiting in Istanbul


Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I can't say People just liked it better that way


So, take me back to Constantinople No, you can't go back to Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks


Istanbul, Istanbul


Istanbul, Istanbul


Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I can't say People just liked it better that way


Istanbul was Constantinople Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, oh Constantinople Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks


So, take me back to Constantinople No, you can't go back to Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks


Istanbul



Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) (1993)



The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees


Yo ho, it's hot, the sun is not

A place where we could live

But here on Earth there'd be no life

Without the light it gives


We need its light

We need its heat

We need its energy

Without the sun, without a doubt

There'd be no you and me


The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees


The sun is hot


The sun is so hot that everything on it is a gas: copper, iron, aluminum on the surface of the sun are all gas


The sun is large


The sun is so large, a million Earths could fit inside. And yet, the sun is just a middle-sized star.


The sun is far away


It's about 93 million miles away, and that's why it looks so small.


But even when it's out of sight

It shines both night and day


The sun gives light

The sun gives heat

The sunlight that we see

The sunlight comes from our own sun's

Atomic energy


Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-crushing machine. The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions between hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.


The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees



I Am A Paleontologist (2009)



I love diggin' in the dirt

With just a pick and brush

Finding fossils is my aim

So I'm never in a rush

'Cause the treasures that I seek

Are rare and ancient things

Like Velociraptor's jaw

Or Archaeopteryx's wings


Now all the kids

Who wanna see 'em

Are lining up

At our museum


I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am


Could it be an herbivore

Crushing plants with rounded teeth

Or ferocious carnivore

Who moves so quickly on its feet?

It's like pieces of a puzzle

That I love to try and solve

It's so fun to think about

How a species has evolved


And all the kids

Who wanna see 'em

Can check 'em out

At our museum


I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am


Is it a T-rex? (I keep digging, digging, digging, digging)

(Digging, digging, digging, digging)

Maybe a Triceratops? (Digging, digging, digging, digging)

(Digging, digging, digging, digging)

Or a Carnotaur? (Digging, digging, digging, digging)

(Digging, digging, digging, digging)

(Digging, digging, digging, digging, diggin')

Pachycephalosaurus?


I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

I am a paleontologist

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am


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