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to talk about ducks hit in the most unexpected and difficult ways.

"Hemingway, who had his back to the fireplace, turned around, smiled at me, buried a hand in his pocket, took out a bone comb, broke it in half, you know, like the poor do with bread. Do you want to see it? Here is my half. He said I could keep it. He also said he apologized if his wife hadn't come, leaving me alone among all those men. He hoped I didn't feel uncomfortable. Cute*, right?

"I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Indeed, between us, it was relaxing that no one was paying attention to me, so I could follow their stories better. Just imagine that Tiberto, when he went to Alexandria for Carlo Guarienti's wedding with Guia Calvi di Bergolo, caught a lion by pulling it by the tail.

"Then Hemingway asked me what I thought about hunting and the game bag. I thought, should I perhaps tell him that the number of ducks killed seemed to be increasing too much, and that in short, I had the impression that everyone had become great braggarts? I could not. Then I diplomatically told him that at that moment I was thinking about some of Bismarck's words: 'Men never tell so many lies as before elections, during wars and after hunting parties.' He burst out laughing so hard that Carlo turned around and immediately dragged him away because he had to finish talking about his big hunt in Africa.

"Now I'll show you the 'drawings' of my album. From the big nose you recognize Carlo and that in the water he quarrels with the boatman and in the comic those XYZZs would be swear words. Here I am, half fainted in the barrel with the shells bouncing off my head. These are the various hunters who boasted of having shot 30, 50, 80, while Tiberto claims 120, but here on the ground there are only 240 poor ducks. The one who dominates in the middle of the big room is..

*Carino means cute in Italian but it's also possible that she was referring to cinema carino. A style of Italian filmmaking of the 1980s and 1990s that was criticized for its retreat from serious or complex issues and for being superficial, unambitious, unchallengingm crowd-pleasingm and televisual. Besides the fact her memoir was published in 1980 Hemingway's actions definitely fit the bill of shallow theatrics.