Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/04/updating-hemingways-saddest.html
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For reference, the story supposedly written by Hemmingway was
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn
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Hmm… Hemmingway’s still seems more tragic to me. I am sure we have a box of baby toys in the attic somewhere and my kids are healthy teenagers. I guess the need to disinfect says something about our times, but nothing about this automatically implies the death of a baby.
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The exclamation points negate the potential seriousness of WHY the toys are for sale.
And it’s 2 words fewer, not 1.
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I think it’s more a case that infanticide is far less common now than in Hemmingway’s time; between the lack of modern pediatrics and almost zero birth control, the specter of death loomed a lot closer for babies back then.
Infanticide is when someone murders a baby. Perhaps you meant ‘infant mortality’?
Sadly, the U.S. rate for maternal and infant mortality is shockingly higher than it should be, considering how long we’ve had modern medical science.
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I did, thanks.
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