# Short Story I.D. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104 "2019-12-19T19:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/1 "2019-12-19T19:43:17Z")
Ages ago I read it, about an old lady who gives piano lessons to men. She gets them to play mindlessly simplistic single-note runs, over and over and over. When the student comes back to inform her that the piano exercises are driving his wife crazy, the teacher responds along the lines of “good - _exactly_”. One scene breifly describes a bunch of scruffy biker types hanging out in her kitchen, and I believe by the end of the story the teacher is found dead by railroad tracks. title/author? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/2 "2019-12-19T20:09:47Z")
I have no idea, but I do have a public service announcement. Do NOT Google “piano teacher short story”. Especially if anyone else has access to your Google history… ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/3 "2019-12-19T20:33:09Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I have no idea, but I do have a public service announcement. Do NOT Google “piano teacher short story”. Especially if anyone else has access to your Google history… You can’t just let that hang out there. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/4 "2019-12-19T21:04:54Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > You can’t just let that hang out there. Probably because [this](https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-piano-teacher-erotic-short/9788726304954-item.html) is one of the first links? (Sorry, OP, probably not the one you are looking for.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/5 "2019-12-19T21:24:04Z")
Exactly. Half of the first page of results are smut. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/6 "2019-12-19T21:47:42Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Exactly. Half of the first page of results are smut. Gadzooks, google results turning up _smut?!_ Has someone informed the media? ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/7 "2019-12-20T06:08:51Z")
Seems to be [annoyingly paywalled.](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/11/21/the-music-teacher?verso=true) Thanks anyway for everyone’s input. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/8 "2019-12-20T08:06:12Z")
Is it _The Last Question_ by Asimov? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/9 "2019-12-20T13:59:07Z")
No. Clearly it’s Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of “Rio” by Duran Duran. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/10 "2019-12-20T14:41:14Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Exactly. Half of the first page of results are smut. Smut, you say? Feast on[this.](https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/plant-disease/corn-smut/) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/11 "2019-12-20T14:58:57Z")
Or indeed [this](https://youtu.be/iaHDBL7dVgs) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/12 "2019-12-20T15:04:10Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Seems to be [annoyingly paywalled.](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/11/21/the-music-teacher?verso=true) > Thanks anyway for everyone’s input. I look forward to Chuck Timgle’s _Pounded in the Butt by Not Being Able to Access the Story You Want to Read Behind a Paywall_. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-i-d/845104/13 "2019-12-20T16:10:52Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Or indeed [this](https://youtu.be/iaHDBL7dVgs) 😃 Thank you.