A penguin and a polar bear are sitting on an iceberg. The penguin yells, "No Soap Radio!" They both jump in the water.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Maybe they'll make this blog change its name too

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." - Ernest Hemingway

I found a blog called "one true sentence" about all things Hemingway. It's interesting, but not as interesting as the FAQ located elsewhere on the site that answers a question about Hemingway's alcoholism with the following:

It has been reported that during the last twenty years of his life, Hemingway got himself into the habit of consuming a quart of whiskey a day. To many, such drinking behavior would indicate alcoholism. Hemingway did like to drink and was blessed with the ability to drink great amounts without showing the effects (don't know if this is a blessing, to some I imagine it is). Towards the end of his life when his health began to deteriorate and his doctors told him to lay off the bottle, he did, but only temporarily. Whenever he felt the urge, he would pick up the practice again. It wasn't the alcohol though that killed Hemingway in the end. It was a shotgun blast to the head. Hemingway was passionate about so many things in his life, alcohol just happened to be one of them. He carried this passion with him wherever he went. Alcohol truly was his moveable feast.

He drank a quart of whiskey a day, drank against doctors' warnings "whenever he felt the urge," and eventually ended it all by suck-starting a 12-gauge. That paragraph has to be the only time I've ever seen anyone defend Hemingway's drinking. This really is a fan site.

2 Comments:

Blogger Kitty said...

You finally updated your links, including my blog. I am pleased.

10/22/2007 09:51:00 PM  
Blogger Joe Killian said...

Yeah -- whatever else Hemingway was (brilliant writer, spirit of an age, changer of paradigms, grandfather of a generation of great American writers) you also have to believe, based on the evidence, that he was a drunk.

12/02/2007 01:55:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home