There was a period in my life (oh those pubescent years) when Hemingway was my favorite author — his masculinely laconic prose appealed to the manliness within the manly man that I thought I was. One might even say the particular economy of his fiction prompted me to pursue a double degree in Economics and English…

(sadly, this is not true; as many people know first generation Asian-Americans belonging to the Silicon Valley diaspora typically force their children into the following four acceptable fields: Medicine, Law, Engineering, Business — art was simply out of the question).

Aside from his influence on literary fronts, Hemingway also poured his creative energies into cocktail creation. Being an irrationally masculine manly man, Hemingway was an abusive drunk; his penchant for firearms and knives helped expand the violent capacity of his intoxicated state. A man famous for bombastic quotes, he dropped a couple of lines in regards to the linear relationship between being a man and being a drunkard.

“A man does not exist until he is drunk.”

“Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks. Great success shooting the knife into the piano. The woodworms are so bad and eat hell out of all furniture that you can always claim the woodworms did it.”

Yup, this was one bad dude.

Okay, perhaps not the most flattering portrayal of a literary icon… still, ol’ man Hem could kill a lion with those chesticles. And, as a noted connoisseur of spirits and the like, Hemingway did leave to us several creations (as well as the popularization of a little drink called the Mojito) — this little ditty is a recipe from the a celebrities’ cocktail book titled ‘So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon‘ by Sterling North and Carl Kroch.

In typical Hemingway fashion -

“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

*** click to enlarge ***

Interesting anecdote that is totally … awesome (I was born in the eighties and reserve the right to frequent usage of archaic slang).

The story goes that sometime in the 1920s, Hemingway bet his colleagues ten dollars that he could write a complete story in just six words.

They paid up.

His story: “For sale: Baby shoes, Never worn.”

For a contest in Wired magazine inspired by Hemingway’s story, 33 authors submitted similar 6-word efforts. Here are a few good ones, see the complete list at Wired Magazine.

“Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.” – Joss Whedon

“Longed for him. Got him. Shit.” – Margaret Atwood

“From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.” – Gregory Maguire

“Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.” – Vernor Vinge

“I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?” – Neil Gaiman

“The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.” – Orson Scott Card

“Bush told the truth. Hell froze.” – William Gibson

“Leia: “Baby’s yours.” Luke: “Bad news…” – Steven Meretzky

“Forgive me!” “What for?” “Never mind.” – John Updike

|FIN :)