December Buffett Buffet: Distantly in Love

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Wow, I’m late! I’m going to a Christmas party at a friend’s house this evening, so everything is backward this morning. But I’m ready to spring a warm Jimmy Buffett song on you to help with the oncoming winter! This one almost made the top ten. Blame the coin toss. Distantly in Love Jimmy Buffett was quite artistic. I don’t mean that in a musical sense, but rather in the broader sense. I thought about going through his songs and picking out literary references (and I might be done with that project by 2028 or so ). Music, books, art….it’s all in Buffett’s music. So the line in this song — “I drove to San Remo where the crazy painter dwells” — had people in Buffett chat groups (and me, honestly, or I wouldn’t be bringing it up ) wondering who the “crazy painter” was. San Remo, Italy (the town in question, given that the verse starts in Paris) was home to English painter Edward Lear, and where he died in 1888. Lear was thought to be “crazy” because he suffered from epilepsy, which wasn’t understood at the time. (Some theologians have wondered if people mentioned in the Bible as having seizures were epileptic.) Lear was, among many things, a painter. He also wrote what were known as “nonsensical” limericks and poetry. So he’s my pick. Buffett never specified who it was. See, that’s one of the reasons I like Buffett so much. He got you to thinking!! The song, he explained when he appeared on Letterman’s NBC show wayyyyyyyyy back in 1983, isn’t a “breakup” song but rather one he wrote after forgetting to call his wife on their anniversary. He didn’t write a lot of love songs, but the ones he did were great. Distantly in Love Written by Jimmy Buffett From One Particular Harbour, 1983 Writing you this letter that you’ll probably never see: