Everyday Creation
This show has to do with different kinds of creation: human, divine, and a third kind that connects the two. Our human creativity is easy to talk about because clearly we're prolific creators. We make music, we write, we cook; we establish businesses, we design gardens, we invent things. The list goes on and on. Another kind of creation is divine. We feel its presence when, for example, we contemplate birth, death, our life purpose, or have a quiet realization that there's something bigger than us. The third kind is perhaps a little more difficult to grasp and yet, with a little practice, it's easy to put into action. This is the personal power each of us has to direct our thoughts, words and actions every day toward what we want in our life and world, rather than what we don't want.
This sounds heavier than it is. For me, this show is an acknowledgment that while we're all here to learn and grow and do our best, there's still plenty of opportunity to relax, laugh, love, and enjoy this playground we call life. So my hope is that you'll get some enjoyment and illumination out of these episodes. Here you'll find interviews with delightfully creative individuals; short stories about some who have passed away; and essays about personal power.
I'm Kate Jones, host and creator of Everyday Creation. Thank you for following my show.
Everyday Creation
An Engineering Major's Unfinished Poem Became "Puff the Magic Dragon"
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Lenny Lipton was studying electrical engineering at Cornell University when he wrote a poem that turned into a song. That song eventually became a hit, thanks to Lipton's roommate who later became Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. Find out how all that came about in this short story by Sheldon Zoldan.
Here, you can watch a 1965 recording of Peter, Paul and Mary performing "Puff the Magic Dragon."
The thumbnail photo of Lipton is a self-portrait that he shot with a Pixel 3 phone in 2021. It's available on Wikimedia under the license CC BY-SA 4.0. The artwork framing two sides of the photo was created by Bob Jones.
Song of the Day creator Sheldon Zoldan researched, wrote and narrated this piece about Lipton, who died in 2022. Yarrow passed away in 2025. You can listen to Yarrow's story by going to the episode titled "Day Is Done" Songwriter Peter Yarrow's Moment of Infamy Dealt a Blow to His Musical Legacy.
Song of the Day used to be a daily feature delivered to an email list of subscribers. Sheldon ended it in early 2026 which, I suppose, means that Song of the Day also deserves a tribute. The good thing is that the tributes live on. Each is a snapshot of the life of one music maker whose work made an impact on the lives of many.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.
Sheldon Zoldan:
“Puff the Magic Dragon" helped finance advances in 3D technology for film, science and the military.
Lenny Lipton helped create the electronic stereoscopic display industry and is given credit for creating technology used in 3D screen projectors in theaters.
Lipton had the freedom to spend most of his life patenting 3D technology, thanks to royalties he received for writing "Puff the Magic Dragon."
Lipton died in Los Angeles on October 5, 2022 from brain cancer. He was 82.
Lipton wasn't a singer, musician or a songwriter. He was studying electrical engineering at Cornell when he wrote the poem that turned into the song.
Lipton was 19 when he typed out the poem on his roommate Peter Yarrow's typewriter after reading Ogden Nash's "The Tale of Custard the Dragon." Lipton left before finishing it. Yarrow, who later became Peter in Peter, Paul and Mary, found it, finished it and put it to music.
The trio always played it during their concerts, but they didn't think it would be the hit that it turned out to be. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963.
Yarrow tracked down Lipton, who was working as a journalist in New York, and gave him a writing credit.
Between the royalties for the song and the book he wrote, "Independent Filmmaking," he was able to focus on his first love, 3D technology. He filed more than 70 patents.
Lipton spent as much time clarifying what the song was about. He said it was never about marijuana, an accusation made by critics in 1960. It was a simple song about childhood innocence.
