Our Guest Blogger today, ANDY STOKES, who was once a regular holiday-visitor to the island of Kalymnos and who now lives there with his partner, animal artist (and cat-fancier) Sue Eisenhauer, sends us this report of their latest experience of Living the Greek Life...
The other day, I bought a pack of playing cards at a souvenir shop in Elies Square. I picked them as a present for Sue because each card has a picture of a Greek Pussycat. The box they came in stated quite clearly that these were "The Best Greek Souvenir", so I had no reason to question their quality.
We started playing a card game but after a few minutes it became clear that all was not well. We arranged them into suits, fanned them on the table... To me they began to look like the sort of deck David might have already 'got at' before saying those immortal words: "Here is a perfectly ordinary deck of cards..."
It does beg the question: if these are The Best, what the not-so-good ones are like?Shocking news, Andy!
Clearly the Trades Description Act -- along with other pieces of legislation like Health and Safety, Not Smoking in Public Places Act etc etc -- have yet to arrive at these shores!
Leaving aside the question of whether or not a magician of David's calibre (I mean, Member of the Inner Magic Circle!) would ever use a deck of cards that have been 'got at' (whatever THAT means!), I do agree that it is decidedly unfair that whilst Andy and Sue clearly have a seriously deficient pack, there's probably someone else out there on Kalymnos or one of those other idyllic little chunks of paradise happily using a deck that - though lacking a Six of Hearts - does have the decided advantage of possibly containing up to as many as seven Kings!
MORAL: Never play poker in Greece - especially if anyone's using playing cards with cats on them!
3 comments:
Only a king... well, you know, Greece have a little problem with kingdoms and kings....;)
Again to play devil's advocate Mr B; this is what happens to anyone who buys a pack of cards on cutesy grounds. Let it be a lesson.If I bought such a pack, I would expect the fox as an adornment as he does, like the card player, rely on cunning for his livelihood !
I woke up here stateside an hour ago 7AM our time,turned on Fox/Sky News and EVEN the tragedy in Pakistan, took a backseat to this Copperfield Secret Warehouse, filled with 2 million in cash fiasco, which is in full swing investigatively. I'm a democrat--mostly liberal but I watch Fox-Sky News which here is considered right wing conservative, I like it only due to the format. As a 20 yr vet of the TV industry, I often prefer listening to those I disagree with, more than those I agree. I factor out their agenda, and there are many news events that have no politics about them, like this Copperfield "crisis", or the Britney/Paris-type "dramas". OJ Simpson, Donald Trump,Joe Francis(Girls Gone Wild), and the likes aren't really sympathetic figures,NOR political, and Copperfield may soon join that category---- BUT magic/illusion has never been about truth, but deception, that said, why is he being judged as if stage "magic" is real/factual/honest? Or have I missed the point all-together? Forgive my meandering- I'm only on my first cup of Joe!
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