Vol. 3, No. 8

June 2007

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Photos by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau

Hemingway look-alikes parade during the "Running of the Bulls" in Key West.

By Carol Shaughnessy
Florida Keys News Bureau

American literary giant Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West throughout the 1930s, writing some of his most enduring works and embracing the unpretentious island atmosphere. The author's legacy is to be recognized Tuesday through Sunday, July 17-22, during the annual Hemingway Days celebration.

During his Key West years, Hemingway wrote in a small studio behind his 907 Whitehead St. home and spent his leisure hours deep-sea fishing and socializing with local and literary cohorts. Fans of his writing and exuberant lifestyle are to come together for Hemingway Days.

In 2006, Chris Storm, of Amarillo, Texas, won the "Papa" Hemingway look-alike title.

The festival's best-known literary event is the awards reception for the annual Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. The Key West–based competition is internationally renowned for its support of emerging writers.

Those with a physical rather than literary resemblance to Hemingway are to compete for the coveted title of "Papa" during Sloppy Joe's Hemingway Look-Alike Contest. Past contest winners will choose the 2007 winner from among as many as 150 white-bearded Hemingway hopefuls.

The competition is held at Sloppy Joe's, 201 Duval St., Hemingway's favorite Key West watering hole. Preliminary rounds are scheduled Thursday and Friday, July 19 and 20, with the selection of the proud "Papa" set for Saturday night on the anniversary of Hemingway's birth. Last year, Texan Chris Storm won the event, impressing judges by singing a takeoff of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." Click here to hear the song and see a slide show.

Other planned festival events include daily tours of the author's former Key West home, Sloppy Joe's Arm Wrestling Contest, a Caribbean street fair, the Green Parrot Off-the-Wall Sidewalk Art Show and a 5k sunset run through Old Town Key West.

For information on the look-alike contest, visit sloppyjoes.com. For the Drambuie Marlin Tournament, visit keywestmarlin.com. For the short story contest, go to shortstorycompetition.com.

Photo by Bill Keogh/Florida Keys News Bureau

Elvis impersonator Neil Goldberg pretends to play guitar at last year's Underwater Music Festival.

By Carol Shaughnessy
Florida Keys News Bureau

Rock legends are to celebrate the "key of sea" in Lower Keys waters Saturday, July 14, as divers slated to portray Sonny and Cher, Elton John, David Crosby and even a mermaid Madonna rock the reef during the 23rd annual Underwater Music Festival.

The scuba-diving superstars are to "perform" beneath the waves during the offbeat underwater event, which draws as many as 600 divers and snorkelers each year to explore the colorful diversity of marine life that characterizes North America's only living coral barrier reef.

The underwater songfest is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary located approximately six miles south of Big Pine Key. Staged by local radio station WWUS 104.1 FM, it features the station's selections broadcast underwater via Lubell Laboratory speakers suspended beneath boats positioned at the reef.

The playlist typically includes ocean-themed ditties such as the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine," Jimmy Buffett's "Fins" and even an authentic humpback whale song.

As well as rocking to the beat of the marine melodies, participating divers and snorkelers can explore other aspects of "aqua-culture" during the festival — at an underwater gallery of "new wave" art by the creative community at Artists in Paradise Gallery on Big Pine Key. Their artwork is to be suspended beneath boats to view.

The quirky annual concert also carries a serious message promoting preservation of the Florida Keys' unique coral reef ecosystem. The musical broadcast incorporates diver awareness announcements written and recorded by Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials that offer tips on how people can enjoy the ocean while minimizing the impact on the reef and overall marine environment.

For more details and to find out about area dive shops offering trips to the subsea concert, contact the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-872-3722.

A retired high school teacher, who began diving in the 1970s, won a Florida Keys dive vacation in the Drive and Dive Contest sponsored by the Keys Association of Dive Operators (KADO) and "Scuba Diving" magazine.

Carol Cohen of Freehold, N.J., was elated with the prize after her name was drawn in May from about 3,500 entries at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West.

The prize of a one-week vacation package for two includes lodging throughout the Florida Keys, a complimentary rental car, rental dive tanks for two in each of the Keys' five regions, ScubaPro dive equipment, admission for two to the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorada and a VIP tour for two of the Keys Eco-Discovery Center.

Cohen entered the contest at the Beneath the Sea consumer dive show in Secaucus, N.J.

The tourism promotional board for the Florida Keys & Key West has garnered two public service awards for its proactive tourism hurricane safety program.

The Monroe County Tourist Development Council received public education/information awards at the 2007 (Florida) Governor's Hurricane Conference and the 2007 National Hurricane Conference.

The hurricane safety program, planned and executed in concert with Keys emergency management officials, began in 1998 and includes a public information program to provide travelers with factual information on hurricanes and safety contingencies before they come to the Keys.

One component of the TDC Web site, at fla-keys.com, features hurricane safety pages, complete with a downloadable brochure that visitors can print prior to their Keys trips, to provide information and related resources.

"It's really unusual to have a tourist development council be that proactive," said former National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield. "I use this (the program) as an example everywhere I go."

Photo by Andrew Crowder

Florida's Governor Helps Release Turtle Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, second from right, helps to release a 140-pound green sea turtle that had convalesced at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon for almost a year. Helping Crist to release the reptile are Keys Mayor Mario Di Gennaro, left, and Turtle Hospital founder Richie Moretti, right. Based in Marathon, the Turtle Hospital is open to the public seven days a week for tours.

For more travel information on the Florida Keys:
www.fla-keys.com