Strong title. Can’t argue with history, however. Fact is fact.
Hemingway hated his mother.
John dos Passos, famous writer and Hemingway friend, said Hemingway was the only man he ever knew who truly hated his mother.
His mother was Grace Hall Hemingway. An aspiring opera singer, she settled into marriage and family. Taught music and voice lessons from the Hemingway home. Strictly religious, a woman with a melodramatic and mercurial temperament.
Grace had a peculiarity. Probably what contributed to her son hating her. She had a fondness for dressing Hemingway and his older sister as twins. Sometimes as boys with short hair, sometimes as girls with flowery dresses and long hair.
Hemingway was concerned at Christmas time when he was 3 that Santa Claus would not know he was a boy.
He was 6 years old when his mother finally permitted him to cut off his long locks for good.
Historians claim being dressed as a girl, etc. is why Hemingway spent his life proving his masculinity to himself and those closest to him.
The bitterness of his mother’s treatment is further evident in the way Hemingway treated female characters in his fiction and the way he treated his 4 wives.
Life is strange. Strange the impact a parent has on a child. Good, bad, or indifferent.
Spent time at the Chart Room last night.
John bartending. Steve and Cindy at the bar. Also Mike, owner of the Grand Guesthouse.
Steve and Cindy unquestionably Key West historians. They have resided in Key West since the mid 1970’s. Steve owned a series of taco stands in Key West and throughout Florida. Cindy was Jimmy Buffett’s assistant for more than 30 years.
They both know everything there is to know about Key West for the past 50 years.
Mike owns the Grand Guesthouse in Key West. A year since I had last seen him. We chatted a while. Learned something I did not know. His wife is Chef at the Reach. She has to be an absolutely outstanding cook. One of the finest steak houses in Key West.
A side note. Common knowledge that David Wolkowsky built the Pier House. What most do not know is that he also built the Reach. Two fine hotels on the opposite sides of the island.
The Reach initially was a rough sand beach with a shack sitting on it. Owned by the Catholic Church. A gathering spot for druggies. Wolkowsky bought the property, threw the beach bums out, and built a magnificent edifice.
A busy afternoon ahead for me. Sloan at 2. Some important work to be done. One of my programs is screwed up. Then at 3:30, Syracuse/Georgetown. Old time Big East basketball foes. Syracuse 6-2, Georgetown 7-1. Syracuse a 12 point favorite.
Patrick Ewing was an All-American star at Georgetown in his college days. Syracuse coached by Boeheim back then. Boeheim now in his 43rd year as Syracuse coach.
Ewing today in his second year as head basketball coach at Georgetown. A Hall of Fame Coach and a Hall of Fame Player oppose each other this afternoon.
Tonight one of my favorite Key West evenings. The Christmas Parade. Like one no where else. The whole town turns out to watch. I sometimes think half of Key West is in the parade itself. An exaggeration, of course.
I generally watch somewhere on Truman. Near Don’s Place. With Lisa and the grandkids.
Don’t know if I will make it tonight. I will be tired from my afternoon and will probably end up staying home.
The stock market.. Like Humpty Dumpty……Falling down!
Blame Trump.
The tariffs and sanctions he has imposed.
Things are not getting better.
Last week at the G 20 in Buenos Aires, Trump and China President Xi were having a private dinner with staff to try to work out the tariff war which is greatly adversely affecting the U.S. and China.
Duplicity reared its ugly head.
While Trump and Xi were talking in Buenos Aires, the U.S. had a prominent Chinese business person arrested at the Vancouver airport. Huawei CFO Meng. Huawei is a major Chinese company. Heavily involved in cell phones in Africa, Europe and Asia. Meng’s father and Xi close friends.
Meng was on her way to Mexico. She was arrested because her company has been doing business with companies doing business with Iran. Contrary to Trump imposed rules.
Such bullshit!
The horror of it all is that Trump and Xi were supposedly trying to work things out tariff wise at the moment of her arrest.
China pissed! Big time! A major insult by way of Asian thinking to China and Xi.
The market has been dropping dramatically as a result. One day up, I think. The rest down. Big numbers.
Yesterday the market dropped 558 points to 24,388. The 558 point drop erased all market gains for the year.
Good job, Donald!
The drop in my opinion not over. The tariffs and sanctions remain. China the biggest concern. Arresting Meng did not help.
If the market drops below 2,000 by year’s end, it will be the beginning of a world wide recession. Hopefully it will not hit 2,000.
I predicted last year that late this year or early into next year, the U.S. would be in recession. Not because I am an economic genius. Rather because I am 83 years old and have seen recessions develop in the past.
Enjoy your day!