Morning flurries

TOPWLH has a birthday today. Happy Birthday TOPWLH. Her day got off to a rocky start as there were flurries in the air this morning although no snow has actually stuck to the ground. The same storm deposited more than 2 feet of new snow in parts of northern Minnesota, including Bemidji and Hibbing. No bicycling today, once having ridden in 60 degree weather, I am not riding in 40 degree weather anymore.

Here is TOPWLH pictured in a celebratory mood at Harry's New York Bar in Paris.The story has been posted, I think on her Xanga, about our excursion into Harry's. If the story isn't posted there it is nonetheless one that her family and friends are familiar with. I was looking at Google Earth earlier and found another Harry's Bar story. As the excerpt concludes, the best story belongs to Papa.

Originally posted by "Dorseyland" on Google Earth.

Harry's New York Bar on Rue Daunou had Ernest Hemingway as a regular (one wonders which Paris bars did not). Its website says the place was founded in 1911 and is "the birthplace of the brilliant Bloody Mary", but the best story belongs to Papa.

In 1950 Ernest told A. E. Hotchner, his later biographer, that an "ex-pug" used to come in with his pet lion, which was well-behaved except that he sometimes shit on the floor. The owner, Harry, would tell the owner to get out and never return, but he kept coming back.

"Realising it was do or die for poor Harry's business, this time when the lion let go, I went over, picked up the pug, who had been a welterweight, carried him outside and threw him in the street. Then I came back and grabbed the lion's mane and hustled him out of here. Out on the sidewalk the lion gave me a look, but he went quietly."

Hemingway reckoned that if he was "getting that aggressive with lions, time had come to put my juice into a book instead". The result was "A Farewell to Arms".