In the fiesta that is the Hemingway lookalike competition the young also rises in Florida Keys.
Because as the much lamented Dolly Parton, who was overlooked even in her own competition, reminds us you need to stick out.
And so white beardie Hemingways have become just too difficult to separate.
Kudos then to Chris Dutton, who made history by becoming the first Young Hemingway to win Sloppy Joe’s 45th Annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest.
The Tampa native channeling Ernest’s earlier moustachioed days.
With, of course, the hairy top lip into the full bush face being a natural progression.
For all of us budding writers.
Importance of being Ernest
Now for those who wish to put their Hemingway credentials to the test and be judged by other Ernests.
Then pencil in July 21-26 at Hemingway’s hang-out Sloppy Joe’s in Key West.
The 39-year-old lawyer emerged from a field of 134 registered contestants, in two preliminary rounds.
Before defeating 23 other finalists to claim the title on his seventh attempt.
The tache Ernest wore: In his younger days
By making a pitch to the judges, or Papas.
All of whom evaluate resemblance to Hemingway, stage presence and character.
And the ability to represent a society devoted to preserving the celebrated author’s legacy.
A chunky white jumper
Sloppy drinkers: The hard-drinking Ernest
Now a good Hemingway chunky white jumper is sure to help.
And Chris had the very thing, a gift from an old Papa.
‘Papa David Douglas gave me this sweater,’ said Chris. ‘I’ve had it for a few years and I never told anybody.’
Now like the Great Man himself the Papas are famous for their generosity.
And after his first appearance at the lookalike contest, a past Papa invited him to Cuba.
Because a Papa is not just for Christmas, as somebody just said.
Papa’s brand new bag
The bell tolls: Skylar Massella of Delray Beach, Fla., Mari Portal of Miami, and Allison Plumadore of Key West.Picture: Carol Tedesco/Florida Keys News Bureau.
Chris now moves from contestant to judge, helping select future winners.
And supporting the Hemingway Look-Alike Society’s scholarship program, which has awarded more than $350,000 to Florida Keys students.
He also becomes one of the tradition’s ambassadors, helping ensure Hemingway’s enduring influence.
Hemingway lived and wrote some of his most famous works in Key West through much of the 1930s.
And he was a regular at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where the contest was held.
The annual contest remains the signature event of the six-day Hemingway Days celebration honouring the 127th anniversary of his July 21 birth.
The announcement comes as the museum continues its transformative $38 million campus expansion.
The project includes new visitor experiences, expanded gathering spaces and an outdoor amphitheater.
And for trainspotters… 30 million archive documents, chronicling the history, development and impact of American railroading.
Nuts and bolts: Of old trains
The expansion will culminate in the opening of Innovation Hall ahead of the nation’s commemoration of the 200th anniversary of American railroading next year.
But it’s not just about looking back, the Innovation Hall will showcase the future of railroading technologies.
Visitors will explore engineering, automation, sustainability, freight systems, passenger mobility.
And emerging innovations shaping the next generation of rail transportation.
The train reigns
And it was all yellow: The future
All of which shines a light on this much-overlooked mode of American transport.
With the car the king and residents of the big cities warning any and every visitor of the dangers of rail travel.
While because of the size of the country Americans take planes like we take trains…
And know that there are other events you can participate in.
Everybody as you would expect in a festival which draws 500,000 Cerevisaphiles and is the largest in the USA and second biggest, after Munich, in the world, joins in.
In the Gemütlichkeit Games.
The curtain-raiser which pits media personalities and civic leaders against each other in Bavarian-style competitions.
Brewing up a storm
Right to bear arms: The beer hoisting
If you’re the active kind then there are 14k and 7k brewery runs passing by famous beermakers.
With prizes and a party for all those who take part.
While if you’re the more stationary type then the Hoisting of the Steins will be more your thing.
The rules of which even the most lubricated of Beerfest visitors will understand.
The trick is to keep your arm fully extended and horizontal.
Munchen date: Getting ready for the Beerfest
While dropping the arm or spilling any of the beer results in immediate disqualification
And we’re with you in thinking that the hardest thing is keeping your Sam Adams (the sponsors and our favourite Boston tipple) at arm’s length without drinking it.
Tweet music
Don’t chicken out: Join the Chicken Dance
Now you won’t need to imbibe to take part in the world’s biggest chicken dance but we reckon it helps.
Komm wieder (that’ll be come again in Teuton).
Well, some 72,000 took part in the dance to the Tweets’ Birdie Song.
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati returns to Cincinnati’s riverfront from September 17-20.
You can fly from London to Cincinnati from £778.69 with British Airways on September 16, returning September 20.
When it was Scottish teacher Hutton, the Father of Argentinian Football, all along.
For it was Gorbals boy Watson who popularised the game in Buenos Aires along with his fellow Caledonian emigres.
Elementary: For Watson Hutton
Watson, a keen sportsman (obvs) introduced kickball at the St Andrews Scotch School in the nation’s capital in 1882.
And the Glaswegian was behind the formation of the Argentine Association Football League in 1893.
And two years later the Buenos Aires English High School and a former pupil’s team in 1898 which became known as the Alumni Athletic.
Argentinian Alumni
We’re all right Jock: Alumni
Now historians of Argentinian football will know all about Alumni, the leading lights in that country’s game in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Watson was himself standing on the shoulders of another giant, an Alec Lamont, a head teacher from St Andrews, who two years prior to Watson’s league set up the Argentine Association Football League.
The earliest known league outside of Britain which St Andrews won after a play-off with Old Caledonians.
Our cup of Lipton tea
Down to a tea: Thomas Lipton
Now World Cup anoraks will be quick to tell you that the first final was between Argentina and Uruguay.
But it was an established rivalry by 1930, again because of Scots.
Glasgow tea magnate Thomas Lipton donated the Copa Lipton trophy in 1905 for competition between both nations which ran until 1992.
Watson’s son Arnold starred for Alumni and scored in Argentina’s 2-0 Copa Lipton win over Uruguay in 1906.
And that Scottish thread has been running through Argentinian teams ever since.
James Brown’s Boys
Argentina legend: Watson’s gravestone
With a James Brown, one of the original Scottish settlers to Argentina in 1824 delivering manifold to the Argentinian cause.
Seven brothers and a cousin, all grandchildren of James Brown, would play for Argentinean clubs and six would also play for the Argentinian national team.
Jorge Gibson Brown captained Argentina from 1908 to 1913 and if you recognise that name in a previous Argentina team then ten out of ten.
Jose Luis Brown scored one of the goals as Argentina won the World Cup in 1986.
Vamos Argentina
Boca roll: Diego at Boca
While World Cup winner and key member of today’s Argentina team Alexis Mac Allister, is clearly one of Jock Tamson’s Bairns.
All of which you can regale your Argentinian friends with when you visit the country’s iconic grounds.
While, of course, you can pay pilgrimage to the Father of Argentinian Football himself, Watson Hutton.
At the British Cemetery (Cementerio Britanico) on Avenida Elcano in the Chacarita neighbourhood of the capital, accessible via the Federico Lacroze subway station.
