Hemingway on Donuts

·         Don't you eat donuts? I notice you speak slightingly of the pastry. I have eaten donuts since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like coffee and a donut? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you? Before an attack who can say anything that gives you the momentary well-being that coffee and a donut does?... The only time it isn't good for you is when you ***** or when you fight. You have to do that cold. But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and coffee and a donut is the only mechanical relief.

·         Postscript to letter to critic, poet and translator Ivan Kashkin (19 August 1935); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker

Donuts. Is there anything they don’t improve? Lapham S185, 10am.

-MLJ

PS->Donuts this week courtesy of Ken Brockman. With a postdoc in his near future, and (presumably) brighter financial days ahead, Ken has generously decided to spend one of his last $25/month student paychecks on our weekly get-together. Now that’s generosity! Congrats on the new opportunity, Ken! Best of luck.