Chasing The Blue Beyond

UK / Ireland / Pandemic Memory / Before Covid Covid-19 And The Stiff Upper Lip A Journey Through Pandemic Times and UK Memories See Full Image Show Text Opening Signal Not Talking About the Pandemic Was Like Denying Gravity Back in The U.K. after a visit to Ireland. Not talking about The Pandemic is like denying gravity exists. That ostrich approach of sticking our collective head in the sand will not delay or deny the medical catastrophe, the logistics nightmare and the financial Armageddon that each of us experience in our own idiosyncratic ways. Call it malignant optimism, but the shared hallucination that it is "just the flu" is junk science. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger but make no mistake about it: This virus can kill. It doesn't have a brain, but we do. Careers are on hold, people are in limbo, and there are only two ways this epidemic will end: Medically, probably never. Socially, when...

All In: A Hero's Journey at Sea and at the Table A parallel life as sailor and gambler ALL IN A Hero's Journey Around the World Two lives ran beside each other for twenty years: one measured in nautical miles, the other in blinds, buy-ins and nerve. The ship kept changing the horizon. The table kept revealing the player. Chum the waters with your presence. The braided story The sailor crossed oceans. The gambler crossed himself. I lived like the old warning made flesh: part drunken sailor, part roaming card sharp, always ready to buy the ticket, take the seat and see what the next hand revealed. I played high-stakes and private games in Macau at the Grand Lisboa and Wynn, Marbella, Curaçao, St. Maarten, Melbourne's Crown Casino, Gibraltar, Sweden, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, the Hard Rock in Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale, and aboard ships at sea...

All In: A Hero's Journey at Sea and at the Table A parallel life as sailor and gambler ALL IN A Hero's Journey Around the World Two lives ran beside each other for twenty years: one measured in nautical miles, the other in blinds, buy-ins and nerve. The ship kept changing the horizon. The table kept revealing the player. Chum the waters with your presence. The braided story The sailor crossed oceans. The gambler crossed himself. I lived like the old warning made flesh: part drunken sailor, part roaming card sharp, always ready to buy the ticket, take the seat and see what the next hand revealed. I played high-stakes and private games in Macau at the Grand Lisboa and Wynn, Marbella, Curaçao, St. Maarten, Melbourne's Crown Casino, Gibraltar, Sweden, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, the Hard Rock in Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale, and aboard ships at sea...