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Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
thank you so much for sending so many very creative and original birthday cards to Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
We'll have several Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club birthday events during March.
If you are interested in these events or if you have very good ideas please join Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club birthday event teams.
You are very welcome.
Many more wonderful interviews by Wolfgang Hampel with Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard's family will be published.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography and interviewer of Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard's family and friends got first Betty MacDonald Memorial Award for his outstanding research and work.
International Betty MacDonald fan club events are the best opportunity making wonderful friends.
Great Vita Magica news!
Wolfgang Hampel's new Vita Magica guest was a very famous TV lady, author and singer.
Tatjana Geßler is an outstanding new Betty MacDonald fan club honor member.
Wolfgang Hampel already introduced Betty MacDonald fan club honor member - artist and author Letizia Mancino - in Vita Magica.
Other Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will follow.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back.
Enjoy a new breakfast with Brad and Nick, please.
Betty MacDonald very beautiful Vashon Island is a magical place.Poland, Germany and Sweden are hot favourites according to many Betty MacDonald fan club ESC fans from 40 countries.
More info will come soon.
We are going to organize a great Betty MacDonald fan club ESC party in Stockholm.
Yours,
Rob
Don't miss this very special book, please.
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald fan clubBetty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Rita Knobel Ulrich - Islam in Germany - a very interesting ZDF ( 2nd German Television ) documentary with English subtitles
The situation in Germany and Sweden with many refugees is rather difficult.
Betty MacDonald, Letizia Mancino, Mary Holmes and the second paradise
Betty MacDonald fan Club honor member, artist and writer Letizia Mancino shares her delightful story THE SECOND PARADISE.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mary Holmes did such a great job in translating THE SECOND PARADISE.
Thanks a million dearest Mary.
We are really very grateful.
I'm one of Letizia Maninco's many devoted fans.
Letizia Mancino sent this connecting piece to " The Second Paradise".
Yours,
Anita & Eartha Kitt II
DEFIANT AS A COCK
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
translated by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
That was how my friend Hilde Domin was, dear Betty! You would have liked her so much. She had also been in America. At that time you were a famous author but she was still unknown.
-Did she love cats like you do?
-Yes Betty, she sure did!! Otherwise how do you think she could have been a friend of mine?
-Oh Letizia, don’t boast! Hilde was famous!
-It’s all the same to me, Betty, whether a person is famous or not but that person must love animals
-Why was she as defiant as a cock?
-Well Betty, she was simply so!
-Like a pregnant woman in my “Egg and I”?
-No not so! Betty, Hilde was a whole farm!
- A farm, how was that?
- No Betty, Hilde was more! Almost a zoo! Even more. She was all the animals in the world!
-You loved her very much.
-As I love all animals.
You Betty, if I had known you, I would have loved you exactly so because you loved animals.
-But as defiant as a cock from my Bob-farm!
-Yes and no! (Hilde really loved this double form of answer). Listen Betty , I’ll tell you a story about how Hilde was. You would certainly have loved her.
I’ll call my story “The Second Paradise”.
THE SECOND PARADISE
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
translated by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
The Lord God, one day, met Adam in Paradise and saw him lying under a palm.
And God spoke to him: Adam, my son, are you happy, are you content with Paradise ?
Adam answered: Oh Lord, it is wonderful!
And God said: But I will create a second Paradise and give you a wife.
Adam answered: Oh Lord, that is wonderful!
And God said: I will create the wife according to your wishes.
And Adam stood under the palm and thought hard.
And God said: Adam, are you ready?
Adam answered: My wife should be as lively as a bird but she should not fly. She should swim like a goldfish but not be a fish….. She should be as playful as a cat but not catch mice….. She should be as busy as an ant but not so small.
And God said: So shall she be: Like a bird, a goldfish, a cat, an ant…
Adam answered: Oh Lord, that is wonderful, but she should be as faithful as a dog.
And God asked: Adam, have you finished?
Oh Lord, cried Adam. She should also be as delightful and gentle as a lamb and as defiant as a cock!
….She should be as curious as a monkey and as pampered as a lapdog.
And God said: So shall she be.
And Adam said: My wife should be as courageous as a lion and as headstrong as a goat…
And God said: So, like a bird, a goldfish, a cat, an ant, a dog, a lamb, a cock, a monkey, a lapdog, a lion, a goat… and slowly and surely he wished to begin creating…
But Adam stretched himself under the palm and called:
Lord, Lord, she should be as adaptable as a chameleon but not creep on four feet.
She should have sparkling eyes like, like… real diamonds. She should be as fiery as a volcano
But … she should have crystal-clear thoughts like a mountain spring.
God, the Almighty, was speechless…
And Adam spoke: Also she should be as quick as lightening…
And God said: Man, have you finished????
No, said Adam! She should be as strong as a horse, as long living as an elephant but as light as a butterfly!
God found Adam’s thoughts were good and said: So, bird, goldfish, cat, ant, dog, lamb, cock, monkey, lapdog, lion, goat, chameleon, genuine diamonds, volcano, mountain spring, lightening, horse, elephant…. butterfly…
God wished at last to begin creating her…
Lord, called Adam… she should be as stable as steel, but as sweet as three graceful women in one…
And God asked: Should she also be a poet?
Yes, called Adam from under the palm…
And God said: Adam have you finished?
Lord, I wish that, in the second Paradise I shall be one and doubled:
So God according to Adams last words created:
HILDE PALM DOMIN
Very best wishes
Letizia Mancino
Macedonia dumps migrants back in Greece as EU-Turkey deal falters
IDOMENI: Macedonia dumped about 1,500
migrants and refugees back into Greece overnight after they forced their
way across the border, as European nations continued to pass the buck
in a migration crisis that risks tearing the European Union apart.
The police action was part of a drive by Western Balkans states to shut down a migration route from Greece to Germany used by nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Asia over the last year in Europe’s biggest refugee influx since World War Two. EU efforts to conclude a deal with Turkey to halt the human tide in return for political and economic rewards hit a setback on Tuesday when EU member Cyprus vowed to block efforts to speed up Ankara’s EU accession talks unless Turkey meets its obligations to recognise its nationhood.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair an EU summit with Turkey on Thursday and Friday, was flying on to Ankara to discuss the fraying pact with Turkish leaders after tough talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. Tusk acknowledged to reporters that the tentative deal put together last week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu raised legal problems and needed to be “rebalanced” to win acceptance from all 28 EU members.
The European Commission meanwhile postponed proposals to reform the bloc’s flawed asylum system, which puts the onus on the state where migrants first arrive, in an attempt to avoid further controversy before the Turkey deal is finalised. Some 43,000 migrants are bottled up in Greece, overstraining the economically shattered euro zone country’s capacity to cope, and more continue to cross the Aegean daily from Turkey despite new NATO sea patrols.
An estimated 1,500 people marched out of a squalid transit camp near the northern Greek town of Idomeni on Monday, hiked for hours along muddy paths and forded a rain-swollen river to get around the border fence. Most were picked up by Macedonian security forces, put into trucks and driven back over the border into Greece late Monday or overnight, a Macedonian police official said. “It’s a long way from the camp to the mountains, it took me six hours of walking. At my age it was very difficult, I would walk and rest often,” said 60-year-old Mohammad Kattan, who slept rough in the mountains and trekked back on foot.
“My hope was to get to Macedonia, and get my papers stamped so that I could continue on to another country, to Serbia.” Greek authorities said they could not confirm the return as there had been no official contact from the Macedonian side. Ties between the two neighbours are fraught because of Greece’s long-standing refusal to recognise Macedonia’s name, which is the same as that of a northern Greek province.
A second group of about 600 migrants was prevented from crossing into Macedonia and many of them spent the night camping in the Greek mountains, according to a Reuters photographer. At least 12,000 people, including thousands of children, have been stranded in the Idomeni camp, where sanitary conditions have deteriorated after days of heavy rain. Scuffles have broken out in recent days as destitute people scrambled for food and firewood. Many have been sleeping in the open. Concern about the spread of infection grew after one person was diagnosed with Hepatitis A.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday there was “no chance” that border shutdowns throughout the Balkans would be lifted and urged refugees to move to reception centres set up by the state. Jan van’t Land, an official with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at Idomeni, said around 400 migrants had returned to the camp. “There are still many hundreds of people on both the Greek and the Macedonian side of the border,” he told Reuters.
Greek officials say leaflets that circulated at the Idomeni camp before Monday’s march showed it was a planned breakout. “We are in possession of leaflets that show this was an organised incident, a very dangerous one, endangering people’s lives,” government spokesman George Kyritsis told reporters. Babar Baloch, regional spokesman for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR who is at Idomeni, said the migrants’ breakout and return “hasn’t solved anything”.”It just increased sufferings of refugees. It started raining again. The sense of support for refugees in the region is missing,” he said.
Turkey wants its citizens to have visa-free access to Europe by June and to open new “chapters” of its stalled negotiations to join the EU in return for taking back all migrants who cross to Greece or are fished out of its territorial waters. U.N. and EU officials have doubts about the legality of such a blanket return. Several EU countries, including France, also have misgivings about the visa liberalisation, saying Ankara must meet 72 EU criteria before it could be implemented.
And Cyprus is demanding that Turkey must open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic and recognise the island. “I conveyed to President Tusk our position that the Republic of Cyprus does not intend to consent to the opening of any chapters if Turkey does not fulfil its obligations as described in the negotiating framework,” Anastasiades told reporters after meeting with Tusk in Nicosia. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, said the aim was to find an “intelligent synchronisation” between the diplomatic process to reunify Cyprus and the EU-Turkey agreement.
The police action was part of a drive by Western Balkans states to shut down a migration route from Greece to Germany used by nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Asia over the last year in Europe’s biggest refugee influx since World War Two. EU efforts to conclude a deal with Turkey to halt the human tide in return for political and economic rewards hit a setback on Tuesday when EU member Cyprus vowed to block efforts to speed up Ankara’s EU accession talks unless Turkey meets its obligations to recognise its nationhood.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair an EU summit with Turkey on Thursday and Friday, was flying on to Ankara to discuss the fraying pact with Turkish leaders after tough talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. Tusk acknowledged to reporters that the tentative deal put together last week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu raised legal problems and needed to be “rebalanced” to win acceptance from all 28 EU members.
The European Commission meanwhile postponed proposals to reform the bloc’s flawed asylum system, which puts the onus on the state where migrants first arrive, in an attempt to avoid further controversy before the Turkey deal is finalised. Some 43,000 migrants are bottled up in Greece, overstraining the economically shattered euro zone country’s capacity to cope, and more continue to cross the Aegean daily from Turkey despite new NATO sea patrols.
An estimated 1,500 people marched out of a squalid transit camp near the northern Greek town of Idomeni on Monday, hiked for hours along muddy paths and forded a rain-swollen river to get around the border fence. Most were picked up by Macedonian security forces, put into trucks and driven back over the border into Greece late Monday or overnight, a Macedonian police official said. “It’s a long way from the camp to the mountains, it took me six hours of walking. At my age it was very difficult, I would walk and rest often,” said 60-year-old Mohammad Kattan, who slept rough in the mountains and trekked back on foot.
“My hope was to get to Macedonia, and get my papers stamped so that I could continue on to another country, to Serbia.” Greek authorities said they could not confirm the return as there had been no official contact from the Macedonian side. Ties between the two neighbours are fraught because of Greece’s long-standing refusal to recognise Macedonia’s name, which is the same as that of a northern Greek province.
A second group of about 600 migrants was prevented from crossing into Macedonia and many of them spent the night camping in the Greek mountains, according to a Reuters photographer. At least 12,000 people, including thousands of children, have been stranded in the Idomeni camp, where sanitary conditions have deteriorated after days of heavy rain. Scuffles have broken out in recent days as destitute people scrambled for food and firewood. Many have been sleeping in the open. Concern about the spread of infection grew after one person was diagnosed with Hepatitis A.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday there was “no chance” that border shutdowns throughout the Balkans would be lifted and urged refugees to move to reception centres set up by the state. Jan van’t Land, an official with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at Idomeni, said around 400 migrants had returned to the camp. “There are still many hundreds of people on both the Greek and the Macedonian side of the border,” he told Reuters.
Greek officials say leaflets that circulated at the Idomeni camp before Monday’s march showed it was a planned breakout. “We are in possession of leaflets that show this was an organised incident, a very dangerous one, endangering people’s lives,” government spokesman George Kyritsis told reporters. Babar Baloch, regional spokesman for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR who is at Idomeni, said the migrants’ breakout and return “hasn’t solved anything”.”It just increased sufferings of refugees. It started raining again. The sense of support for refugees in the region is missing,” he said.
Turkey wants its citizens to have visa-free access to Europe by June and to open new “chapters” of its stalled negotiations to join the EU in return for taking back all migrants who cross to Greece or are fished out of its territorial waters. U.N. and EU officials have doubts about the legality of such a blanket return. Several EU countries, including France, also have misgivings about the visa liberalisation, saying Ankara must meet 72 EU criteria before it could be implemented.
And Cyprus is demanding that Turkey must open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic and recognise the island. “I conveyed to President Tusk our position that the Republic of Cyprus does not intend to consent to the opening of any chapters if Turkey does not fulfil its obligations as described in the negotiating framework,” Anastasiades told reporters after meeting with Tusk in Nicosia. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, said the aim was to find an “intelligent synchronisation” between the diplomatic process to reunify Cyprus and the EU-Turkey agreement.
