Word: harle
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...Harl Cook looks at life cheerfully. He is the son of George Cram "Jig" Cook, founder of the Provincetown Playhouse and inspirer of Eugene O'Neill when the playwright's work was first produced on the Cape in 1916. The elder Cook, writes O'Neill, was "always enthusiastic, vital, impatient with everything that smacked of falsity--he represented the spirit of revolt." Cook fils is also something of a rebel. When Cook pere died, a legacy to Harl provided for a Harvard education. About 1930, Harl came to Harvard--for three days--and then packed off with his inherited loot...
After a jaunt through Western Europe to Greece, Harl returned to Provincetown, where, through the years, he has gainfully occupied himself as a fisherman and fish-monger, and latterly, as a coffee grinder. One gathers that he was seriously ill for some time, but this didn't prevent him from driving, for variety's sake, a taxi in New York...
...Harl believes that he was never interested in the theatre as a career "simply because of it." His mother was the novelist and playwright Susan Glaspell, and Harl himself has written stories for magazines during his own varied career. But he seems quite content with just what he's doing: "Of all the businesses around, I guess this one is the most civilized," he says, looking up from a casual though expert game of chess. Life seems to march on, and Harl enjoys talking to people about both them and him and how we all live...
Between them, Harl and Tulla drink about 21 cups of coffee a day: Harl, only three ("or I go through the ceiling"); Tulla, 18 ("I just love it!"). They have 20 kinds, ranging from "Angel's Bosom" (Cuban black coffee with lemon peel) to "Cafe del Diablo" (Java Semarang, blended with mint.) Harl says Boston is "just a hick town when it comes to coffee. None of the restaurant suppliers knew what an espresso machine was." Harl and Tulla also serve pastry, cheese, and sandwiches...
...clientele, Harl expects "all kinds" to patronize the shop. "We certainly don't want pseudo-bohemians here. If they're real bohemians, that's okay. But they shouldn't exclude others. There's no reason for our inheriting the Capriccio crowd," he says...