To the Ladies.

Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies

Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain

For we’ve received orders to sail for old England

But we hope in a short time to see you again

Nobody ever sang it quite like Quint. (The shark should have got the other two and left Quint to sing on. Benchley and Spielberg got it wrong.)

I’m in a weird mood. It’s what comes of seeing a picture of an exquisitely beautiful woman and finally – belatedly by a long way – giving up the farcical hope of ever having what I wasn’t entitled to and was never going to get. Sailing for old England indeed. Best place for toothless old tars. As somebody once famously said:

‘The scotch will set you free.’

The teeth might be stained with the residue of the rum ration, but the brain cell lives on.

Got it? Good.