Well that was awkward

That time Ernest Hemingway was quarantined with both his wife and his mistress (who was also his future wife). Plus 7 other things worth your time.

A fake letter made the rounds recently. (I’m trying not to say things “went viral” now.)

It was purportedly written by F. Scott Fitzgerald while in quarantine with Zelda Fitzgerald during a pandemic in 1920, supposedly nearby Ernest Hemingway.

I think this line might have been a tipoff. A bit too on the nose:

At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t.

He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources.

If that didn’t make it clear, maybe the disclaimer at the top of the post on the website McSweeney’s, that reads: “NOTE: This is a work of parody and is not an actual letter written by Fitzgerald.”

Maybe that was added later. (Nick Farriella wrote the parody.)

Anyway, the fake letter was funny and timely. It’s also grounded at least partially in truth, in that Hemingway did apparen…