The Hemingway
A Holiday Invention
An AmoebaCorp. tradition of creating something new out of something existing takes a literate turn.
This is another piece I have a great deal of affection for and it's not necessarily the design, it's the writing. Ernest Hemingway did live in Toronto as a young newspaper reporter for a while. He did not however, invent a contraption that pours five drinks at a time. The short story that accompanies this 'product' is written in a style that is somewhat old-timey and has a satisfying resolution explaining the origin of the product which is just a latex glove with holes punched in it.
(Full text after the photos)
The Hemingway Manifold Carafe
Inner reveal with latex glove
Glove detail
Text detail
User instructions (illustrations by Jeff Rae)
'Retail Locations' a.k.a. places Hemingway resided over the years
The Hemingway
Born Out of Necessity
The early morning frost of Toronto’s High Park often forewarns of the coming winter months’ deep chill. On an overcast December morning in 1923, one such frost found a young writer deep in thought among the barren oaks and elms overlooking the pastures. There, Highland cattle grazed on what greenery had endured the early winter blight. He had not slept well for weeks. The holiday season was fast approaching, and with it the requisite greetings, good cheer and gatherings, both attended and thrown. He fretted he would spend his own soiree slavishly preparing cocktails for his guests instead of delighting the room with his considerable skill as raconteur, his charms wasted tipping bottles and slicing limes. The year before had been as such. While callouses were proof of a job well done, they were better suited for the yard than the parlour. How was one to balance the needs of many against the desires of one? And so it goes that while this young scribe pored over his seasonal angst, his eyes narrowed on the young cattle suckling at their mothers’ teats. At that very moment sun pushed cloud aside, bathing his face in warmth, as if to illuminate that which needed no further illumination. A wry smile crept onto his face; his question had an answer.
Mother Nature had created the perfect bartender and, in what amounted to a cruel joke, had wasted it on the socially inept bovine. The simplicity of design was sublime. The form, exquisite. The functionality, unsurpassed. A cow’s udder could care for as many as four calves at once and it followed that a determined host with a similarly designed device and a steady hand could do no worse. But if four was good, surely five was better. He hurried out of the park. The sooner his morning reverie became reality the sooner he would sleep soundly at night.
Thus was born the Hemingway Manifold Carafe. A design classic and holiday favourite, now reissued by AmoebaCorp. in a stunning black latex model, making it the most durable and attractive Hemingway to date.
