The Fourth of August, 1937
(already two months in Buenos Aires!)

My Distant Amigo,

My milonguero friend Antonio often says : ‘Tango is an embrace. Concentrating on the feet at the expense of the embrace is like wearing a fur coat and no knickers. Besides, it produces embrace ailments.’ Fortunately, the most common ones all seem to have remedies :

‘The Iron Grip’ – Their partners are at risk of turning blue from lack of oxygen. Both dancers might want to relax and breathe.

‘The Betty Spaghetti’ – These dancers are quite the opposite, all limp and flaccid. Remedy: think ‘al dente’ and straighten up.

‘The Bouncy Ball’ – Dancers whose head can only be seen intermittently in a milonga suffer from an ailment caused by taking ‘bouncy steps’; the remedy shall be to stop bending knees at odd times.

‘The Wandering Arm’ – The worst kind, these chaps do not keep their hand on their dance partner’s back or let it wander too far down. Easy to identify: their partner’s face is crimson red.

‘The Weakest Link’ – Those who cannot keep their arm up ought to eat more spinach, or do some simple exercises with light weights. Cans of spinach shall do (before they have eaten it, evidently).

I hope that one day, a lady shall commend my embrace; it is a huge compliment that should truly be something to blow my wig about!

I shall write again next week. Toodlepip!

Arthur