The Bookity Book & Tall Grass Salon

shakeysix

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I visited Ernest H.'s museum/house in Key West a couple of summers ago. I saw a portrait of Gregorio Fuentes--the original "Old Man and the Sea" and that was fantastic. The rest of the place smelled kind of cat boxy, so I did not linger. Sloppy Joe's was down the street but I went to Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise. It seemed like a livelier crowd and no cats. How is that for meandering? --s6
 
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Kylabelle

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ETA: There I go again, getting caught in the cross postage. Hiya, Shakey! :D

Yeah we don't need to model ourselvs all that closely on reality, I reckon.

As for Virginia Woolf, ap, I'm probably not the one to share that with you since I don't believe I've read anything by her -- certainly not recently enough to talk about it. :(

Anyway, I have no idea what kind of music people like, but I thought I'd set up a few tunes, in case mood music is desired:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrhRtjFlpo

some nice chillin' background things.

:D
 
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ap123

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Hi Shakey!

Oooh, I would love to visit Hemmingway's house. One day, sigh. Though maybe I'll go during allergy season, so's not to smell the kitties. :D

Nice tunes, Kyla.

Imma take you back a bit further, one of my favorite albums.
 

Kylabelle

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Oh, nice, ap! Now we're beginning to get a good selection going. I've got some Mozart for later on, if it feels right.

As for the cats, I read recently that the state of Florida decided to get all controlly about the cats and do something about or to them that the locals and Hemingway preservationist sorts were all up in arms about. I believe they were going to capture them all and put them in shelters or the like.

Not sure what happened with that. It was a standoff when I read about it, but it wasn't that long ago.
 

ap123

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But what are the gators going to eat if they lock up all the cats? ;)
 

shakeysix

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There was some kind of cat issue when we were there. The cats are descendants of son Gregory H's six toed cat. The guide told us that as long as there were some number, under 51, I think, the cats could stay on the grounds.

I was all for the cats at the beginning of the tour but there are palm trees, lots of them. Each tree has a mulch of shredded coconut husks at the base. Hate to say it but you know cats and shredded anything! The trees and hedges serve as giant catboxes. Lots of hissing and spitting too. I am a cat lover but the experience was a little overwhelming. I had a vision of Hemingway in a pith helmet and safari jacket calling"Here kitty-kitty, Pussy-Pus," on his way home from Sloppy Joes.

I asked for a ghost story--I always do on historical tours-- but the guide only gave me a blank stare. Heard a great one at James Thurber's house in Columbus Ohio. Seems that The Ghost That Got In still gets in from time to time--s6
 
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Kylabelle

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Yeah, that does sound pretty unpleasant. A tour of famous catlitter. Um. *has no solution to offer about the cats*

You've done a number of these historical tours, Shakey? Well, enough to have a habit of asking about ghosts anyway. :) I've never even done one such tour I don't think.
 

shakeysix

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I am a boring person. Whenever I travel I visit botanical gardens and museums. It drives my redneck family nuts. I like museums that were once homes. I especially like to visit author's houses. I think it stems from a car trip I took as a kid with my parents. I could not convince them to pull over in Red Cloud, Nebraska to visit Willa Cather's home. Guess I never recovered from the disappointment.

Some of the kids I went to school with in Iowa were from Oak Park. I wanted to see his birth home but I never made it there. When i visited my daughter in Hollywood Florida and she suggested we go to Key West, I talked her into seeing Hemingway's house. Robert the Devil Doll was her idea.

I really want to see Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings house in Cross Creek. I am going to Florida next week but will be caring for the young gentleman in my avatar so will have to save that one for later. I loved "Cross Creek" so can't wait to go there.

Anyone else love an author enough to visit his/her house? As a kid I had a mad plan to visit Robert Heinlein's house. We were going to Colorado Springs on vacation and I figured it would be no sweat to slip away, hire a cab and visit him. No doubt he would be anxious to chat with an 11 year old fan. I had read on a dust jacket that he was born in KC Missouri--just a stone's throw from Great Bend, Kansas, so we had a lot in common right? When we made it to Colorado Springs it was even bigger than Wichita! I chickened out! Thank God I gave up on my plan. I did see Helen Hunt Jackson's grave though. Tranquil and pretty --s6
 
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Kylabelle

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Wait, wait. How does that translate into being a boring person, fer cryin out loud?

I love botanical gardens and museums that were people's houses. I just somehow have never gone to author's houses. Probably because the road trip refusal that scarred me when I was a child was that we never got to stop at one of those cheesy roadside attractions that Tom Robbins made more or less famous, the real chintzy ones with the little carnival of rides, some poor caged beast or other, some specialty food, some gimcrack gimmick.

We kids would wail and yowl and Daddy Daddy can we can we stop there please? You know, they put signs for such places strung along the highways for miles, so we got our frustration built to a high pitch, and Daddy got to hear all about it.

But he was firm. Those places were nothing but tourist traps, out to get your money. Trashy. Not for the likes of us.

*sigh*

So that's the kind of thing I went for, in reaction, later on, until I learned that carnival rides and cheap thrills and juke joints were pretty much what Daddy said they were after all.
 

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So I suppose this means a discussion of Virginia Woolf is out of the question ;)

I'm very fond of Woolf. I love trying to cook the food she writes about, but I especially love her essays.
 

shakeysix

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So you lost out on seeing the mummified body of Christ? Did you see the hippy chick with the deformed thumbs hitch hiking on the side of the road? That wasn't Sissy Hankshaw, that was me!

So you read Robbins too? If I ever get to Seattle...--s6
 

shakeysix

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My sister is the Woolf fan. She makes that beef in pastry dish that is served in "To the Lighthouse" -- cannot remember the name. She serves it up for Easter dinner every other year or so. It blows my mind. I could never spend that much time on any recipe. I do eat it, though.

When it comes to literary recipes "How Green Was My Valley" has always fascinated me. My husband's family was Welsh and they made the rarebit with beer and cheese. Must be a bitch on cholesterol. I liked it but it was beyond me to make. I would love to try the brandy broth that Huw's mother made. --s6
 
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Kylabelle

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So you lost out on seeing the mummified body of Christ? Did you see the hippy chick with the deformed thumbs hitch hiking on the side of the road? That wasn't Sissy Hankshaw, that was me!

So you read Robbins too? If I ever get to Seattle...--s6

Oh yeah, baby. :ROFL:

But he lost his shimmer for me with that one article he wrote, sometime in the 90s I think it was, taking women to task for not fixing the world. I just tried to find a cite and failed. I don't think I read his last book, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, though I think it's his best title ever.
 
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shakeysix

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Like Heinlein, he was my hero for a while but now seems outdated. Bradbury, on the other hand, seems as current as ever. Don't know why. Hey, ever try Dandelion Wine? Not the book but the real stuff--Blech! --s6
 

Kylabelle

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:roll:

No, but I can imagine. :D

Okay, since we're on authors and food, sort of, did y'all know that Annie Proulx wrote gardening books, early on in her career? I used to own two, probably didn't keep them but will have to look tomorrow. One was all about different lettuces.

And even cuter, Robert Frost when he was young wrote for a poultry magazine. I also had a book that was a collection of his articles for them. Apparently he knew almost nothing about chickens but was good at pretending that he did. :D
 

shakeysix

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I did not know that about Annie P. but did know that Frost was a chicken man. Robert E. Lee too. He had a pet chicken all through the war. I don't see the attraction. Cats are better pets than chickens in my opinion but who can question Robert Frost and Robert E. Lee? .

Rawlings went coon hunting and drank moonshine with her cracker neighbors. Heinlein did masonry as a hobby. Helen Hunt Jackson and Emily Dickinson were classmates and wrote to each other all their lives? Why didn't Hunt Jackson write a biography of Dickinson? Willa Cather dressed as a boy and tried to pass herself off as her own twin brother in college. I love authors. Booth Tarkington is my favorite right now. If I ever get to Indiana again ... --s6
 
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ap123

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I'm very fond of Woolf. I love trying to cook the food she writes about, but I especially love her essays.

Funny. I've adored Woolf's work for years, and I do a lot of cooking, but I've never tried to cook her food.

I've gone past many author's homes and haunts, my favorite might be this one but I've never done any tours of their homes.

I have tried dandelion wine and I agree--blech!
 

Kylabelle

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*sets up a couple of coffee urns, puts out a plate of scones and one of doughnuts*

*yawn!*

Good morning. ap that is a sweet little house! Or, it used to be; the difference is pretty amazing in the neighborhood.

So, I guess we won't be getting a flock of chickens here. Might be nice to have fresh eggs on hand but, yeah, it's a lot of work.

*splashes a little brandy in a mug of coffee*
 

ap123

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Did someone say coffee?

It's still a sweet little house, but yes, the neighborhood has changed dramatically, even over the last 30 years.
 

Kylabelle

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Care for a splash of anything in that coffee? Brandy is good. :D

Does anyone live in the Millay house now, or is it museumed?

*is still waking up the brain cells here*
 

ap123

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Well if you insist, it was cold walking from the train. Ok, just a splash ;)

I'm pretty sure the Millay house is occupied, not a museum. I think I remember hearing it was on the market just a few years back.
 

shakeysix

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Another place I'd love to go to but probably won't make. My late husband was from New York but I don't have any family there now. My vacations seem to revolve more and more around family as I age. I do love Edna St. Vincent Millay--her life as well as poetry. Had no idea about the house being so small and snug--it seems to fit right? --s6
 

Kylabelle

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I thought the same. Small, slim, a good fit. :)

One of the things I've always been curious about (but not curious enough to research) is the bit about Colette being locked in a room to write.

I've often had the thought that that would work pretty well, if it could be a mutual agreement in a way, like, do me a favor and let me out in six hours or whatever, but I have the notion that was not the case, with her.