April 29, 2020 - 229 - "Stalking Artists Series-Installment 2: Ernest Hemingway in Key West"

     First...a few important messages...

    Well, okay - I had the idea to do this 'Stalking Artists' series back on January 21st.  Guess I've been busy...'til now!  Thank you, once again, Coronavirus!  Look at all the stuff we're doing.

    Fans Around the World

    If anyone is worried about that potential reader in Australia having a run-in with a deadly snake:  Don't.  It was a preliminary stat showing the check-in from 'down under'.  But when I got more details..it was a false alarm.  

     I have a 100% bounce rate from Australia.  Turns out that person spent almost zero time on this site.   I guess I was right to begin with:  the lure of all those cute animals with names starting with 'K' is just too much.  They probably don't read anything ever there.  I know I wouldn't:  Hello?... kangaroos!

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    Gushing over non-existent Aussie readers makes me feel bad.  I realize now that it was wrong of me to get so worked up over this when there are other people who've been here for me all along, day in, day out, checking out my posts.  You know I'm talking to you, Person-In-Portugal!  

    I saw a huge uptick in hits from Portugal after those comments.  I suspect you're reminding me who my real fans are.  I am humbled by your consistency.  I hope you know how much it means to me to see that daily hit from you.  1 in a day.  7 in a week.  30-ish in a month.  I appreciate you and I'm sorry you're having to double up on hits just to get my attention.

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    Okay, now for some talk about that groovy thing we used to do:  Travel!

We Just Went For The Sunshine

     In December of 2015 Michael and I were looking for a get-away weekend.  As usual, we had't planned ahead.  We ended up both having some time off and no plans, so we started looking around for somewhere we wanted to go...where the flights were open.  (That's the way airline people do it:  Check for empty seats first.  Decide where we want to go second.)

    About the only thing we were really interested in was somewhere sunny and warm.  The weather in Texas was cold and dreary and the forecast called for more of the same.  So we checked out flights to Miami, threw a bunch of books in our bags, and rented a car...

    Next thing we knew we were cruising down The Overseas Highway through the Florida Keys.  We stayed at a (beautiful and fun and comfy) bed and breakfast in Key West, and settled in for some reading and biking around Old Town.

But Guess Who Showed Up?

   This is how things often start for us.  Just in it for the climate and geography, then before you can say 'Shadow Artist', we find ourselves standing in front of some dead writer's house. 

   Yep.  Another case of Artist Stalking.  

   We both like Hemingway and have romantic fantasies about Paris in the 20's from reading "A Moveable Feast" one too many times.  But we didn’t really think:  let’s go to Key West to check out his house.  

    But once we were in the vicinity, a magnetic pull seems to draw us to some site frequented by artists or writers. 

     Hemingway's house did not disappoint.  It would be fun to visit even if Hemingway hadn't lived there.  It was such a cool and beautiful old house surrounded by stunning gardens.

     Hemingway wrote a number of books in the studio you see peeking through the palms here:  "Green Hills of Africa", "Death in the Afternoon", "To Have and Have Not", and the short stories 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber' and 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro'.    He based some of the characters in "To Have and Have Not" on friends he made in Key West.

      We stood for a long time staring at this room; always intrigued to see where something was created.  How different would the work be if written somewhere else?  Would it have been written at all?

     The coolest moment, by far, were some close encounters with some of those famed six-toed cats of Hemingway’s!

     And seeing that six toed cats don't care for the preferences of mere humans any more than regular cats do.

      A second cool moment:  Having lunch at the nearby 'Six Toed Cat Cafe', (where we got a cool mug we use to this day).    Here we also learned that Ernest would use that lighthouse as a marker to help him get home from whatever bar he'd gotten drunk in that night!         Interesting, no?

      It was so cool to walk in the (stumbling?) footsteps of such a fascinating, complex, and talented character.  

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"Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years.  If something is wrong, fix it if you can.  But train yourself not to worry:  Worry never fixes anything."

-Ernest Hemingway

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"You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another."-Ernest Hemingway

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"Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual." -Ernest Hemingway

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"I'm a Hemingway fan, so in a manner of speaking, I've been fishing with him already.  But man, would I love to board Pilar in Key West and head south until we have a day-long battle with a tarpon, haul that bad boy up, then celebrate by telling lies over run on a Cuban terrace."

-Marcus Sakey