News bulletin (well, news item): Norwegian announces new line-up for Legends in Concert on the Epic…
This is a recycled headline, because Norwegian changes its "Legends" cast every few months, and this announcement is about the cast that boards the Epic in November. But this time, it is a little different.
The performers who are the subjects of the "tribute performers" are Michael Jackson, Donna Summer and…Jimmy Buffett?
Norwegian can't be serious.
Anybody who plays Jimmy Buffett, like almost anybody who sees Jimmy Buffett, is called a parrothead. That's okay except that one of the quirky things about parrotheads is that they're obsessed with the lyrics crafted by The Man, and his lyrics often focus on pirates 
(seven songs, and counting). When they're not singing along to "A toast to Columbus, Arawaks and Caribs To pirates and patriots, rascals and thieves" from Autour de Rocher, they're reading about them in one of Author Buffett's books, A Pirate Looks At Fifty. Sometimes, he even induces them to dress as pirates.
And they're going to take these people to sea? Either they won't go, or they'll think their ship doesn't have a hope of returning. Or they'll think it's worth the risk.
It happens that one of these people lives in our house. She would think it's worth the risk because she thinks almost anything is when it comes to anything to do with Jimmy. Even when it's not really Jimmy, just a Jimmy wannabe.
In Norwegian's case, the tribute performer's name is Barry Cunningham and he must be 
good, which will just give her and her fellow parrotheads another reason to throw caution to the wind and go on the Epic.
Cunningham must be good, because he's the only Jimmy Buffett clone in the Legends in Concert stable which, by the way, has 16 Elvis Presleys and three Michael Jacksons. Impersonators of the King of Rock and King of Pop are plentiful…but not so much the King of Pirates.
Cunningham, who must be close to Buffett's age (65), has spent a lifetime performing in concert halls, clubs, lounges, showrooms, cruise ships…where would they like him to perform? He's also performed as Neil Diamond and Elvis, but expect him to stick to parrotheads and pirates when the Epic sails out of Miami.
Miami?
Jimmy has a lyric for that, too, from his hit Everybody's Got A Cousin In Miami:
"It's hard to believe the city started as a trading post
Home to the Seminole, pirate and pioneer…"
Pirates? You didn't expect pursers, did you?
Norwegian Epic
13 nights
October 21, 2012
Barcelona, Ponta Delgada, St. Thomas, Miami
Inside: $549
Cost per day: $42
www.ncl.com