11/7/10 Hemingway shops for sofa art

A shopper at the Northrup-King art crawl had a Papa Hemingway cropped white corona of a beard around his chin, a short, weathered face, even a cap recalling the era of marlin fishing off Cuba and Florida. He walked with a cane, like Hemingway did, and I couldn't see which group of people he rather belonged to. Last I saw him, he was sitting wearily on a bench in a hallway, third floor, outside several studios with sofa paintings.

Papa Hemingway has come across time to see what's going on in 21st century Minnesota. He thinks most of the art show is B.S. He likes the naked lady photo show, and maybe wants to talk to the Argentine photographer about bullfighting. Or maybe there's an expert fly-fisherman whose technique he wants to suss out. The fisherman needed to talk to a few artists to buy stuff for his cabin, and Hemingway is waiting to go out with him to a pub later. Maybe Hemingway is with his wife, who is shopping for bland paintings for their home--paintings that won't disturb him or his mental tranquility. Even literary legends have to sit on a "husband bench" while their wives shop.

"For some idiot reason," I told my friend about the Hemingway doppelganger, "this excites me." She told me there is a Papa Hemingway lookalike contest every year in Key West. The art shopper could win top honors. http://www.sloppyjoes.com/lookalikes-pastwinners.htm