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I was thinking about rowing across the Bab el Mandeb, more or less to take one for the world economy. I would get my old friend Pete Spurr to pull the oars while I sat on the prow, both of us going backwards as you do rowing, calling yo heave ho with an occasional laugh, and Yar out of context. It would be a 2-Pete team. He used to be a lineman in Canadian football so, as Leadbelly said of someone else years ago, he's a big Mother Hubbard in his stocking feet. I would have Old Glory in one hand and the Maple Leaf in the other, swooshing in time to the oars. If we were bombed we could cling to the remnants of our boat and nobody would bomb us again, surely, unless it was the US Military. But what reason would they have, even once? There should probably be a little jingle for people to recite when thanking us at the pumps, and since I'm a poet, this is not a problem: Row row row your boat/ gently 'cross the Bab, Get the price of oil back down/ to what you once had had. I suppose some will say, Well why didn't you do The Strait of Hormuz, and the answer is: that's more than I feel up to. We just have to do what we can and let the rest take care of itself. Maybe we'll do The Suez Canal later, I don't know. For now, we fly to Riyadh, take an Uber down to the Bab, buy a boat and set out. I hope none of you worry too much. We might not even do it.