Statistical Clerihews

by Lawrence Mark Lesser

Reverend Thomas Bayes
learned probability’s ways:
a minister, not friar,
he used what came prior.

William Playfair
made charts you display there:
a British spy with zeal
who stormed the Bastille.

Florence Nightingale
(where gents tried ‘n’ failed)
gave hospital staffs
illuminating graphs!

Sir Francis Galton
gives us a caution:
correlation caught,
but eugenics was fraught.

William Sealy Gosset
turned on the faucet,
sampled the beer:
law of error got clear.

Sir Ronald Fisher
tested a mixture
of milk and tea:
did milk precede?

Jerome Cornfield
his fame was more sealed
by proving the answer
that smoking brings cancer.