Of the few cultured things we did in Key West, the best was our visit to the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum on Whitehead Street. Hemingway lived in the handsome colonial mansion from 1931 to 1939, penning some of his greatest works from a detached study. An animated and somewhat prickly tour guide took us through the rooms and explained how Hemingway's wife Pauline had all the ceiling fans removed for aesthetic purposes, and spent extravagantly on installing one of the island's first in-ground swimming pools, prompting Ernest to surrender to her his "last penny."

As for Hemingway's famous cats, their descendants are still there roaming around and getting underfoot, and they do indeed have six and sometimes seven toes. It makes them look like they're wearing little catcher's mitts on their hands. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-04-25T14:44:52-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/8/1440/86988

While at least one Brit is determined to give tourists a bad name in Tokyo, a city southwest of Osaka is drawing in the masses with the world's most adorable train attendant.]]> egw 2008-10-08T16:00:40-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/28/11353/6725

The fate of Ernest Hemingway's cats has finally been decided. The fifty or so descendants of Snowball - who was given to Hemingway in 1935 - will be allowed to remain at the late writer's Key West home, provided they never stray from the property. The cats - some of which have six toes - have been a fixture of the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum for years, but Florida authorities had recently threatened to remove them from the property, claiming the museum didn't keep the animals properly contained (they were free to leave the grounds if they felt like it) and lacked an animal welfare license.

The recent agreement between the parties comes as a relief to the many tourists who pass through the verdant gardens and Spanish colonial house where Hemingway wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "To Have and Have Not." To some, the furry critters represent a living legacy of the writer, and the threat of eviction seemed like another tin-eared move from by-the-book bureaucrats who wanted to spoil the fun for nothing. Still, we can't help but wonder why it took five years of negotiations for the museum to install a fence around the perimeter. It seems like the obvious thing to do. Fortunately for the cats, an independent animal behaviorist came to the same conclusion.

[Photo: AP/Florida Keys News Bureau]

Related Stories:
· Purr-fect Ending to Battle Over Hemingway's Cats [AP via Yahoo! News]
· The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum [Official Site]
· Florida Catfight! State, Museum Do Battle [Jaunted]]]> Victor Ozols 2008-09-28T11:35:03-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2005/11/4/141817/307

Sometimes, it's best to let the ad take over:

20 CATS! 2 DOGS! 8 CLOWNS! WALKING TIGHTROPES! DEATHDEFYING BALANCING ACTS! JUMPING! DANCING! ACROBATICS!