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The Ballad Of Gregor Mendel
© 2000 Stephen Baird, M.D.

When Gregor Mendel was a boy he worked hard on the farm,
Scratching out a living with the muscle in his arm.
They didn?t have a lot to eat - some chickens and goat cheese,
And in their garden for legumes, young Gregor planted peas.

When he had grown to twenty-five, he was ordained a priest.
Most of us would think that meant the farming would have ceased.
He studied math and science - got Vienna U. degrees.
Then came back to the abbey and persisted planting peas.

CHORUS: Little bitty round peas, great big wrinkled peas,
Long pods, short pods, a potpourri of peas.
He didn?t propagate pods of peas for recipes,
He pondered properties, assorting independently.

For seventeen years Mendel taught a high school science course.
In his leisure time he was forbidden intercourse.
It was in the garden that he liked to take his ease.
What was Mendel doing there? Just propagating peas.

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Now, since he couldn?t mate himself he mated all his plants,
Then published how their properties assorted just by chance.
With really tight statistics that had some suspecting sleaze,
But Mendel?s probabilities predicted genes in peas.

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But then the abbot died and he was buried by the church.
The abbot?s death meant Mendel had to give up his research.
He was elected abbot and all he could say was ?Please!?
?Who wants to shuffle papers, when he could be shucking peas??

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