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My dear FRAN, Bill Grey, has once again called me a liar.  I suggested to him that Hemingway's greatest story only took six words.  Bill, ever the expert on everything, suggested that there is no such story because he had never read it, nor heard of it. 

 

I presented the following to him: "In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work."  Bill suggested that I was lying.

 

I read the story behind the story several years ago.  It was, and still is, presented as literary legend.  So far no one has disproved the story of the story.  Snopes.com was unable to determine if this was true or not, but everyone involved with the story, along with the author of a play about Hemingway where the story is used, claims that it is true.  Until there is definitive evidence, I choose to accept the legend and accreditation to Hemingway.  In any case, in six words, the author tells a more compelling story than Bill ever has in any of his posts.

 

The story:

 

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

 

=======================

Welcome to Alabama! Cut your grass or we'll whoop your ass. -- NashBama

un til them go OBAMA and hang in their. -- rechardbettyrey

you are the most dishonest person I havem ever met on the Religion Forum! -- Bill Gray

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Crusty, my Friend,

 

Once more, you are huffing and puffing, blowing smoke -- but, it is all coming out your ear!   You tell us, "My dear FRAN, Bill Grey, has once again called me a liar.  I suggested to him that Hemingway's greatest story only took six words.  Bill, ever the expert on everything, suggested that there is no such story because he had never read it, nor heard of it."

 

No, I am not calling you a liar.  What I have asked and still ask is, "Show us the six word story!"   If what you say is true, that story must be written somewhere.  So, give us a source.

 

All you offer is the worst kind of hearsay.  Someone made a statement or wrote a statement suggesting that Hemingway had written this story -- and that is YOUR authority -- a random statement from some unknown source.  If you are ever arrested and taken to trail -- I sure hope you have better proof of your innocence than such flimsy hearsay.

 

Crusty, my Friend, if this story truly does exist somewhere other than just your vivid imagination -- you should be able to give us a source.  That is all I am asking.  Just tell me where you have read Hemingway's story as you suggested and where we can read it. 

 

Two of my favorite writers are Hemingway and Steinbeck -- and I am not at all familiar with this story you keep suggesting.  Please share it with us.  And, yes, several times I have seen the movie of Hemingway's life -- and several times I have seen the television documentary about Hemingway, his home in Cuba, and his life.   I do not recall any mention of this "six word story."

 

You tell us of your "legend" -- "In any case, in six words, the author tells a more compelling story than Bill ever has in any of his posts."

 

By author, you obviously mean Ernest Hemingway.   What you tell us is exciting.  PLEASE share these "six words" with us so that we, too, might have the joy of reading this Hemingway story.

 

Oh, you cannot?   But, you tell us, "Just trust me!"   Hmmm, seems I have heard many used car salesmen say that same thing.

 

Crusty, why don't you just admit that you were, as usual, just blowing smoke in an attempt to bluff your way through a discussion where you were way over your head -- and we can move on to better issues for discussion.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

Sylvester-Cat-2_TEXT

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Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Crusty, my Friend,

 

Once more, you are huffing and puffing, blowing smoke -- but, it is all coming out your ear!   You tell us, "My dear FRAN, Bill Grey, has once again called me a liar.  I suggested to him that Hemingway's greatest story only took six words.  Bill, ever the expert on everything, suggested that there is no such story because he had never read it, nor heard of it."

 

No, I am not calling you a liar.  What I have asked and still ask is, "Show us the six word story!"   If what you say is true, that story must be written somewhere.  So, give us a source.

 

All you offer is the worst kind of hearsay.  Someone made a statement or wrote a statement suggesting that Hemingway had written this story -- and that is YOUR authority -- a random statement from some unknown source.  If you are ever arrested and taken to trail -- I sure hope you have better proof of your innocence than such flimsy hearsay.

 

Crusty, my Friend, if this story truly does exist somewhere other than just your vivid imagination -- you should be able to give us a source.  That is all I am asking.  Just tell me where you have read Hemingway's story as you suggested and where we can read it. 

 

Two of my favorite writers are Hemingway and Steinbeck -- and I am not at all familiar with this story you keep suggesting.  Please share it with us.  And, yes, several times I have seen the movie of Hemingway's life -- and several times I have seen the television documentary about Hemingway, his home in Cuba, and his life.   I do not recall any mention of this "six word story."

 

You tell us of your "legend" -- "In any case, in six words, the author tells a more compelling story than Bill ever has in any of his posts."

 

By author, you obviously mean Ernest Hemingway.   What you tell us is exciting.  PLEASE share these "six words" with us so that we, too, might have the joy of reading this Hemingway story.

 

Oh, you cannot?   But, you tell us, "Just trust me!"   Hmmm, seems I have heard many used car salesmen say that same thing.

 

Crusty, why don't you just admit that you were, as usual, just blowing smoke in an attempt to bluff your way through a discussion where you were way over your head -- and we can move on to better issues for discussion.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

Sylvester-Cat-2_TEXT

I've heard the same story as Crusty posted and he presented it in a way that doesn't force it's way as fact. It's not going to be published, as you want, but it definitely sounds like something Hemingway would write and fits the mold of the group of writers that spent a lot of time together.

 

I know one thing, Bill Gray couldn't respond to anything in 6 words. I mean, seriously, does it take that kind of response to say, "hmmm, interesting"? Gray is just a dude that has to argue.

Crusty, my dear Friend,

 

YOU still have given us no definite proof or source for that six word story YOU CLAIM in attributed to Ernest Hemingway.  Anyone can make up six words and say they came from Hemingway. 

 

You suggest:   "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

 

Let me suggest this six word story:  "For sale, Brooklyn Bridge, very cheap!"

 

Now, which one came from Hemingway -- and which came from an overactive, fertile imagination?  OR, did both?

 

Once again, my Friend -- NO CIGAR!

 

Bless your heart!

 

Bill

Good Friends Will Not Let You Down

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The most famous authenticated six words written by Hemingway, from The Sun Also Rises:

 

“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a ****ed good time together.”
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

These are the final lines of the novel, presenting Brett and Jake’s final dialogue, spoken in a taxi at the end of Chapter XIX. Jake has endured an attack by Cohn and helped Brett in her seduction of Romero. Brett has pushed Romero away and now finds herself alone again. In this concluding passage, the lament over what could have been is truly poignant, and for many this represents the novel’s finest moment. Just as Brett voices, one last time, the dream that the two of them could have had a relationship, a policeman raises his baton and symbolically signals a halt. The car’s sudden deceleration presses Brett tantalizingly close to Jake, echoing a number of similar scenes earlier in the novel, but the barrier between them is quite clear now. Moreover, Jake’s slightly cynical and bitter reply shows that he has no illusions about their relationship. He seems to appreciate the fact that a relationship between himself and Brett, if such a thing had been possible, would have been unlikely to end differently than any of her other failed relationships. Yet Jake’s subtle doubts only increase the poignancy of the novel’s closing lines. Their relationship is revealed to have been merely a beautiful dream, a dream that is now slipping away forever.

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/sun/quotes.html

Originally Posted by Contendah:

More background on the six-word story:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...by_shoes,_never_worn

 

Seems unlikely that Papa was the author.

 

________________

So far I haven't seen anything that refutes the story of the bet.  Arthur C. Clarke also gives it some credence.  There are the newspaper ads, but in those the wording isn't exactly the same, and Papa might have put his own spin on it.  Absolute proof that it happened: no, but none really needed for my point to be valid.

Originally Posted by CrustyMac:
Originally Posted by Contendah:

More background on the six-word story:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...by_shoes,_never_worn

 

Seems unlikely that Papa was the author.

 

________________

So far I haven't seen anything that refutes the story of the bet.  Arthur C. Clarke also gives it some credence.  There are the newspaper ads, but in those the wording isn't exactly the same, and Papa might have put his own spin on it.  Absolute proof that it happened: no, but none really needed for my point to be valid.

____

Isn't it pretty to think so?

 

Sorry--couldn't resist!

Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by INVICTUS:

Yeah, I have a seven word book,

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn, Gosnell."

===============

Good one. How about his sequel, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn, will fit a baby big enough to walk to the bus station". Gosnell.

*******************************************

Yeah Best, that's the multi sequel, thousands even.


 

Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by INVICTUS:
Originally Posted by CrustyMac:

 

The story:

 

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

 

That was a good book Crusty, I really enjoyed it.

=================

I have it on tape. 

***********************************

I have it in Baby talk in four different languages


 

Originally Posted by INVICTUS:
Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by INVICTUS:
Originally Posted by CrustyMac:

 

The story:

 

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

 

That was a good book Crusty, I really enjoyed it.

=================

I have it on tape. 

***********************************

I have it in Baby talk in four different languages


 

================

If they make it into a movie we can see if they stay true to the story. It kinda reminds me of the classic, "For sale, wedding dress, worn once by mistake".

Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by INVICTUS:
Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by INVICTUS:
Originally Posted by CrustyMac:

 

The story:

 

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

 

That was a good book Crusty, I really enjoyed it.

=================

I have it on tape. 

***********************************

I have it in Baby talk in four different languages


 

================

If they make it into a movie we can see if they stay true to the story. It kinda reminds me of the classic, "For sale, wedding dress, worn once by mistake".

____________

That musta been a comedy.

Hi Deep,

 

I will ask you the same thing I asked your good buddy, Crusty -- if that is true and Hemingway did write it -- as they say in Missouri:  SHOW ME!

 

And, we are not talking about some hearsay thing written by someone's cousin of a third cousin of Hemingway's house keeper -- while they all sat in a bar drinking tequila.

 

If you can show me a link which proves this puff of smoke story; please do so.  If not, you are just blowing smoke out your ear the same as Crusty.   But, that is not an unusual experience for you and other atheists.   Most of your facts come as poofs of smoke from the ear.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Hi Deep,

 

I will ask you the same thing I asked your good buddy, Crusty -- if that is true and Hemingway did write it -- as they say in Missouri:  SHOW ME!

 

And, we are not talking about some hearsay thing written by someone's cousin of a third cousin of Hemingway's house keeper -- while they all sat in a bar drinking tequila.

 

If you can show me a link which proves this puff of smoke story; please do so.  If not, you are just blowing smoke out your ear the same as Crusty.   But, that is not an unusual experience for you and other atheists.   Most of your facts come as poofs of smoke from the ear.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

_________________

 

am i the only one that laughed hysterically after reading this? 

Originally Posted by Bill Gray:
Anyone can make up six words and say they came from Hemingway. 

 

___________________

I want to thank you for giving me credit for this brilliant story.  You are wrong as usual, but at least you realize that I might be capable of writing one of the most poignant stories I've ever read, in only six words. 

 

Fifty reams of paper later, and you are still trying to come across as something less than a narcissistic blowhard.

Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Crusty, my Friend,

 

I feel for you!  I really do.  Your mouth (or mind) has dug a hole -- and now you cannot climb out.   Not a problem.  Let's just write it off as another Crustyism -- and just move on to more productive discussions.

 ----------------------------

Oh my! Did I just read our resident blow hard practicing the art of throwing derogatory names at a couple of antagonists? Didn't he a bit earlier blame a couple of others of doing this very same thing in another thread? Takes one to know one, I guess...

 

Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Crusty, my Friend,

 

I feel for you!  I really do.  Your mouth (or mind) has dug a hole -- and now you cannot climb out.   Not a problem.  Let's just write it off as another Crustyism -- and just move on to more productive discussions.

 

Bless your heart!

 

Bill

 

_____________

I understand that it is late in the week and your weekly meds are wearing off, but you are going to have to explain what hole I've dug myself into. 

 

Get Dory to hand you a Kleenex to wipe the drool from your chin, and try to answer in such a way that a sane person can understand. 

Originally Posted by Crash.Override:
Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Hi Deep,

 

I will ask you the same thing I asked your good buddy, Crusty -- if that is true and Hemingway did write it -- as they say in Missouri:  SHOW ME!

 

And, we are not talking about some hearsay thing written by someone's cousin of a third cousin of Hemingway's house keeper -- while they all sat in a bar drinking tequila.

 

If you can show me a link which proves this puff of smoke story; please do so.  If not, you are just blowing smoke out your ear the same as Crusty.   But, that is not an unusual experience for you and other atheists.   Most of your facts come as poofs of smoke from the ear.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

_________________

 

am i the only one that laughed hysterically after reading this? 

 

Prob'ly.

But then again, I figure you for one who snickers at yourself each time you fart...



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