Pigeons

or, Apologies to the Mighty Compo

L-12

When I likened Compo (RN engineer) to Quinn the Eskimo a few posts ago, I was thinking of the line 'When Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's going to run to him'. This of course was wrong; there is no such line.

While I was painting the engine room at the weekend, the opening verse popped into my head (must have been the paint fumes) and I was struck by how amazingly apposite it was, so I went and checked whether I'd remembered it right. The first verse, I had:

Ev'rybody's building the big ships and the boats
Uncanny, huh?
Some are building monuments
OK, well you can't have everything
Others, jotting down notes
That'll be me
Ev'rybody's in despair
... and that's Jim
Ev'ry girl and boy,
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here
Ev'rybody's gonna jump for joy
Well, spot on, I think. Let's try the next verse ...

I like to do just like the rest
Hm, bit of a worry...
I like my sugar sweet
OK, I think we can all agree on that
But guarding fumes ...
Clear reference to the BSS ...
And making haste
Not past moored boats!
Just ain't my cup of meat
Nor mine neither Bob
Ev'rybody's in the trees
Feeding pigeons on a limb
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here
All the pigeons gonna run to him

Stop this! It's getting silly!

Pigeons 2

When Aaron was at primary school, he came home and proudly told me that he and his friends had formed a gang, called the Pigeon Gang (no, I never did find out why). He said 'Alex is God Pigeon; Kieron and I are Vice-God Pigeons, and Hannah and Elizabeth are Secretary Pigeons.' Ten years of sound feminist upbringing, I thought, clearly counts for nothing.