GG Andersen

Niels Andersen navigated container ships for thirty-eight years, from cadet to chief officer, and turned down the last promotion because he preferred the bridge to the paperwork. He learned the game in an officers' mess on a long crossing, played it indifferently for decades, and never left a port without finding the junk shops: a shelf of bone, ivory and brass cubes grew out of it, one pair from every place that held him more than a day, and he maintains that not one of them rolls honestly. Then he came ashore, and a doctor told him in a flat professional voice to find something quiet for his evenings. He took the instruction literally, and has obeyed it since.