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In Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, "Rappaport Digby" is the (translated) name of the host of the radio show "The Children's Hour of Science" on the home planet of a race of spider-like aliens. And of course that sounds just like "Eleanor Rigby", but there is also one particular episode of the show, memorable both to the Spiders themselves and to the humans surreptitiously watching them from space, which touches on some similar themes — who are we and why are we here? Do our timeless traditions still hold true in the face of the passage of time? Is anyone watching, and will anyone remember?

lyrics by Benjamin Newman
ttto: "Eleanor Rigby" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
/ C - Em - / /
 
Ah, look at all the Spider people
Ah, look at all the Spider people
 
/ Em - -C - Em / /
 
Rappaport Digby
Opens the Hour of Science as if all is well
No-one can tell
Sherkaner's children
Keep getting younger and younger as year follows year
Has he no fear?
 
/ Em7 Em6 C Em / /
 
All the Spider people, none dare to call it strange
All the Spider people, it's all about to change!
 
Honored Pedure
Looks at the babes in his fur as if they were unclean
Isn't she mean?
What kind of person
Keeps having kids in the middling years of the Sun?
It just isn't done
 
All the Spider people, none dare to call it strange
All the Spider people, it's all about to change!
 
Sherkaner chuckles
Asks if the custom still holds if the world doesn't sleep
Laughs at the Deep
Honored Pedure
Asks who will vouch for the safety of those who still do
She knows it's true
 
All the Spider people, none dare to call it strange
All the Spider people, it's all about to change!
 
Ah, look at all the Spider people (now many years have passed)
Ah, look at all the Spider people (it comes to this at last)
 
Victory Lighthill
Gathers her team as the aliens move to attack
She's thinking back
Back to that broadcast 
Wonders if alien spies were tuned in to the show
What did they know?
 
All the Spider people, none dare to call it strange
All the Spider people, it's all about to change!
 

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