Hello 'Pussy' it's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking:
This year, the White House was slow to make tickets available or to detail its Easter Egg Roll plans, leaving some of the event devotees to fret that the first family would do away with the longtime tradition, which dates back to 1878.
Do you have any idea why we feel so ashamed? I do!
Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?
( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel,
' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )
Betty and Don MacDonald in Hollywood
Betty MacDonald's mother Sydney with grandchild Alison Beck
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
History of the Egg tree in Saalfeld
The Egg tree of Saalfeld
Happy Easter to all our Betty MacDonald fan club fans in 40 countries around the World.
What would our one and only Betty MacDonald say to this Egg tree in Saalfeld in Germany?
Imagine to see this unique tree with 10.000 eggs!
I guess to Betty MacDonald it would be kind of a shock but I'd like to see it.
Many visitors from all over the world are huge fans of the Egg tree in Saalfeld.
Wolfgang Hampel's updated Betty MacDonald biography and some of his new very funny poems are one of the many very interesting subjects in Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter April.
Late Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honor Member Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and Betty MacDonald's friend described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The plague and I, praises the Betty MacDonald essay written by author Claire Dederer:
Thank you so much for Claire Dederer's essay on Betty.
Betty would have been so pleased and also astounded that someone had studied her books on such a deep level.
Claire's understanding of Betty's character, also reveals Claire's own ability to do very intelligent, creative analysis.
I am profoundly happy with this, in memory of a wonderful human being.
Love,
Monica Sone
Claire Dederer, Author of Poser : My Life In Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
lives in Seattle and writes about books and culture for the New York Times, Vogue, Newsday, and many other publications:
Thank you so much for this.
It means the world to me. If one can treasure an email, I will treasure this one.
It would be my honor to donate a book to the Betty MacDonald Fan club.
Yours,
Claire Dederer
Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his very funny poems and stories.
Happy Easter to you all!We have many colourful Betty MacDonald Easter eggs for you.
One of these Betty MacDonald fan club Easter surprises is the new outstanding website of beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli.
Don't miss it, please.
Surprise, surprise!
We found new radio manuscripts and shows.
We are working on Betty MacDonald fan club exhibit and an updated Betty MacDonald documentary.
Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter April includes a letter by Betty MacDonald, mentioning Dorita Hess and other very important persons in her books.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel told us that Betty MacDonald fan club research team does an excellent job in supporting him with his several Betty MacDonald projects especially an updated Betty MacDonald biography.
Betty MacDonald fan club event team is very happy to hear from you and they got some really great ideas for the next International event.
Thanks a lot!
You can join Eurovision Song Contest Fan Club on Facebook.
Join us, please. We have lots of fun and joy and had several International ESC meetings in the past.
Vita Magica with Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Letizia Maninco was outstanding.
The audience enjoyed it very much.
Wolfgang Hampel's Vita Magica is fascinating because he includes Betty MacDonald, other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor members.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Their many devoted fans are waiting for a new Mr. Tigerli adventure.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for our Betty MacDonald fan club fans.
We'll have several International Betty MacDonald fan club events in 2017.
Join us in voting for your favourite city, please.
Wolfgang Hampel's Vita Magica guest was a very famous TV lady, author and singer and she is our new Betty MacDonald fan club honor member.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is our beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member.
I guess our Casanova adores our Betty MacDonald fan club honor member very much because author and TV moderator Tatjana Geßler is a very beautiful, charming and intelligent lady.
Tatjana Geßler's books are outstanding. I've read several of them.
Enjoy Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island, please.
Great Betty MacDonald fan club news!
You can join
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald Society
Vita Magica
on Facebook.
Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
If you join Betty MacDonald fan club blog as a follower during March you'll receive a very special Betty MacDonald fan club Welcome gift.
Send your email-address to our contact address, please.
Great news!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back and his fans are delighted.
We'll have several International Betty MacDonald fan club events in 2017.
Don't miss Wolfgang Hampel's Vita Magica March, please.
You'll enjoy it very much.
You can see brilliant Brad Craft.
"This is Me," by Bad Kid Billy. [Official Music Video]
Seems I'm in this for a hot second. I remember being asked to participate one day on the street in front of the bookstore where I work. I didn't think to ask what it was for, or even so much as the name of the song or the band. Didn't want to be late coming back from lunch. Silly bugger. The very nice young woman with the green hair also featured herein happens to work at Magus Books. She mentioned she'd seen me. Told me the name of the band, and here we are.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Monica Sone and other Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will be included in Wolfgang Hampel's new project 'Vita Magica'.
We got very interesting new info for updated Betty MacDonald biography.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to include all these new details and info in updated Betty MacDonald biography.
If you'd like to join Betty MacDonald fan club you only have to press the join button on Betty MacDonald fan club blog.
New Betty MacDonald fan club fans will receive a special Betty MacDonald fan club Welcome gift during April.
Send us your email address to our contact address, please.
Wolfgang Hampel's Vita Magica February was outstanding and so was Vita Magica Betty MacDonald event with Wolfgang Hampel, Thomas Bödigheimer and Friedrich von Hoheneichen
Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography.
This very new Betty MacDonald biography includes all the results we got during a very successful Betty MacDonald fan club research which started in 1983.
You'll be able to find unique Betty MacDonald treasures in our Betty MacDonald biography.
Betty MacDonald biography includes for example interviews with Betty MacDonald, her family and friends.
We got many letters by Betty MacDonald and other family members even very important original ones.
Our goal is to publish a Betty MacDonald biography that shows all the details of Betty MacDonald's life and work but also to present her fascinating siblings.
Dear Betty MacDonald fan club fans let us know please what you are interested most in a future Betty MacDonald biography.
Do you prefer an e-book or a so called real book?
Wolfgang Hampel and Friends of Vita Magica visited Minister of Science of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer in Stuttgart.
They visited Landtag and had a great time there.
Do you have any books by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen with funny or interesting dedications?
If so would you be so kind to share them?
Our next Betty MacDonald fan club project is a collection of these unique dedications.
If you share your dedication from your Betty MacDonald - and Mary Bard Jensen collection you might be the winner of our new Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Thank you so much in advance for your support.
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
We are so glad that our beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many new interviews.
Alison Bard Burnett and other Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will be included in Wolfgang Hampel's fascinating project Vita Magica.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel interviewed Betty MacDonald's daughter Joan MacDonald Keil and her husband Jerry Keil.
This interview will be published for the first time ever.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many interviews never published before.
We adore Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's literary event Vita Magica is very fascinating because he is going to include Betty MacDonald, other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor members.
It's simply great to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others.
Linde Lund and many fans from all over the world adore this funny sketch by Wolfgang Hampel very much although our German isn't the best.
I won't ever forget the way Wolfgang Hampel is shouting ' Brexit '.
Don't miss it, please.
It's simply great!
You can hear that Wolfgang Hampel got an outstandig voice.
He presented one of Linde Lund's favourite songs ' Try to remember ' like a professional singer.
Thanks a million!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Their many devoted fans are waiting for a new Mr. Tigerli adventure.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for Betty MacDonald fan club fans from all over the world.
Don't miss Brad Craft's 'More friends', please.
Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island is one of my favourites.
I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.
I can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight against these brainless politics.
About 21,000 people are set to arrive at the White House lawn on Monday for the annual Easter Egg Roll, typically one of the year’s largest White House events and one that is expected to test the hostessing chops of first lady Melania Trump.
The affair is expected to be smaller than it was under first lady Michelle Obama, whose Easter Egg Rolls drew celebrities, professional athletes and big-name musicians. Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s spokeswoman, said this week that the first lady decided to scale back the event because she worried it had grown too large, creating long lines for some activities.
The White House said military bands, the New Jersey-based pop-rock band Bro4, and the Martin Family Circus are set to perform and commemorative eggs have been ordered. There will also be a “reading nook, music stage, official egg roll, and other fun events,” according to the White House website.
The Easter Egg Roll drew about 35,000 people in 2016, when the Obama White House organized a carnival-like event that highlighted the former first lady’s “Let’s Move” health and fitness initiative. That year, singer Idina Menzel, Silento and others performed and the young attendees watched cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs and shot hoops and batted tennis balls on courts alongside professional athletes.
I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.
Poor World! Poor America!
Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.
The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career
Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
You took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel sent his brilliant thoughts. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang!
Hi Libi, nice to meet you. Can you feel it?
I'm the most powerful leader in the world.
Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say
Copyright 2016 by Wolfgang Hampel
All rights reserved
Betty MacDonald was sitting on her egg-shaped cloud and listened to a rather strange guy.
He said to his friends: So sorry to keep you waiting. Very complicated business! Very complicated!
Betty said: Obviously much too complicated for you old toupee!
Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.
The old man could be his great-grandfather.
The boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed.
Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.
He congratulated her and her family for a very strong campaign although he wanted to put her in jail.
He always called her the most corrupt person ever and repeated it over and over again in the fashion of a Tibetan prayer wheel.
She is so corrupt. She is so corrupt. Do you know how corrupt she is?
Betty MacDonald couldn't believe it when he said: She has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.
Afterwards old toupee praised his parents, wife, children, siblings and friends.
He asked the same question like a parrot all the time:
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
I know you are here!
Betty MacDonald answered: No Pussy they are not! They left the country.
They immigrated to Canada because they are very much afraid of the future in the U.S.A. with you as their leader like the majority of all so-called more or less normal citizens.
By the way keep your finger far away from the pussies and the Red Button, please.
I'm going to fly with my egg-shaped cloud to Canada within a minute too.
Away - away - there is nothing more to say!
Daniel Mount wrote a great article about Betty MacDonald and her garden.
We hope you'll enjoy it very much.
I adore Mount Rainier and Betty MacDonald's outstanding descriptions
Can you remember in which book you can find it?
If so let us know, please and you might be the next Betty MacDonald fan club contest winner.
I hope we'll be able to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others - very soon.
It' s such a pleasure to read them.
Let's go to magical Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island.
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund and Betty MacDonald fan club research team share their recent Betty MacDonald fan club research results.
Congratulations! They found the most interesting and important info for Wolfgang Hampel's oustanding Betty MacDonald biography.
I enjoy Bradley Craft's story very much.
Don't miss our Betty MacDonald fan club contests, please.
You can win a never published before Alison Bard Burnett interview by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
Good luck!
This CD is a golden treasure because Betty MacDonald's very witty sister Alison Bard Burnett shares unique stories about Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Nancy and Plum.
Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his very funny poems and stories.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is beloved all over the World.
We are so happy that our 'Casanova' is back.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to share very
interesting info on ' Betty MacDonald and the movie The Egg and I '.
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Enjoy a great Easter Monday,
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Enjoy a great Easter Monday,
Walter
you can join
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald Society
Vita Magica
Eurovision Song Contest Fan Club
on Facebook
Vita Magica Betty MacDonald event with Wolfgang Hampel, Thomas Bödigheimer and Friedrich von Hoheneichen
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald fan club on Facebook
Betty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( Polski)
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - LinkFang ( German ) Wolfgang Hampel - Academic ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - cyclopaedia.net ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - DBpedia ( English / German )
Wolfgang Hampel - people check ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Memim ( English )
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 - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)
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
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Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Greta Larson
21,000 people and 18,000 eggs: the Trump White House braces for its first Easter Egg Roll
Children
roll Easter eggs on the South Lawn of the White House during the annual
White House Easter Egg Roll on March 28, 2016. Thousands of people
attended the 138-year-old tradition of rolling colored eggs down the
White House lawn that was started by President Rutherford B. Hayes in
1878. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The affair is expected to be smaller than it was under first lady Michelle Obama, whose Easter Egg Rolls drew celebrities, professional athletes and big-name musicians. Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s spokeswoman, said this week that the first lady decided to scale back the event because she worried it had grown too large, creating long lines for some activities.
The White House said military bands, the New Jersey-based pop-rock band Bro4, and the Martin Family Circus are set to perform and commemorative eggs have been ordered. There will also be a “reading nook, music stage, official egg roll, and other fun events,” according to the White House website.
The Easter Egg Roll drew about 35,000 people in 2016, when the Obama White House organized a carnival-like event that highlighted the former first lady’s “Let’s Move” health and fitness initiative. That year, singer Idina Menzel, Silento and others performed and the young attendees watched cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs and shot hoops and batted tennis balls on courts alongside professional athletes.
This year, the White House was slow to make tickets available or to detail its Easter Egg Roll plans, leaving some of the event devotees to fret that the first family would do away with the longtime tradition, which dates back to 1878. Wells Wood Turning, the Maine company that has manufactured the commemorative wooden eggs in years past, sent a frantic tweet on Feb. 20 to President Trump and other members of the first family, warning that a manufacturing deadline was looming.
Times Insider
My Own Private Easter Egg-Gate
My
first hint that the White House Easter Egg Roll in the age of President
Trump might be a fraught subject came, fittingly, through Mr. Trump’s
favorite medium: Twitter.
One afternoon in March, in between stories about the collapse of his health care overhaul and his immigration crackdown, I spotted a tweet
announcing that the commemorative wooden egg the White House would hand
out at the annual gathering on the South Lawn would be “GOLD.”
This
seemed appropriate for a commander in chief with a fondness for all
things gilded, from the Louis XIV-style accents that drip from every
corner of his Manhattan penthouse to the color of his signature logos.
I retweeted the announcement with a comment: “Forget those silly pastel/rainbow colors of White House Easter Egg Rolls past; Trump’s Easter eggs will be GOLD.”
Moments later, I noticed another tweet showing that the Trumps were also unveiling pastel-colored eggs.
Then a quick internet search reminded me that last year, for their
final Easter Egg Roll, the Obamas, too, had featured a golden egg in
addition to the traditional brightly colored ones.
I quickly corrected myself on Twitter,
but for many of Mr. Trump’s ardent supporters, the damage had been
done. Over the next several hours and for more than a week afterward, I
received hundreds of angry and ugly messages from people who were
outraged by my comment, calling for a public apology to the president,
my resignation or firing, and worse. More than two weeks later, I still
receive at least one or two insults per day related to what I have come
to refer to as Easter egg-gate.
To
them, my tweet was an egregious example of “fake news” from The New
York Times. The reaction was far more vitriolic than any I have
experienced covering more serious topics, such as allegations that Mr.
Trump’s campaign had ties to Russia or his attempts to impose a travel
ban.
It also suggested that a story
I had been picking away at for weeks about the Trumps’ plans for their
first-ever Easter Egg Roll might have more resonance than your typical
bunnies-and-Peeps tale. The subject seemed to touch a nerve, not because
it was important on its own but because the event was seen as a
reflection of the president himself.
I
first became interested in the Easter Egg Roll after a colleague
alerted me to another quiet drama unfolding on Twitter: The wood
products manufacturer that makes the commemorative eggs had been using
the platform to nudge Mr. Trump to submit an order for the Egg Roll
before he missed the production deadline.
Intrigued,
I began calling sources who might know something about the planning of
the event. Many professed ignorance and even some alarm about whether
Mr. Trump would hold the Easter Egg Roll at all; others told me plans
were underway but the event would be scaled back — to about 20,000
attendees from nearly twice that many last year.
It seemed an apt metaphor for a White House plagued with understaffing and disorganization from the start.
White
House press aides answered my queries politely and promised to look
into the matter. Then there were weeks of silence. So as I juggled
coverage of health care and taxes, Nafta and wiretapping, I investigated
the Easter Egg Roll — calling anyone I could think of who might know
something about it.
Right
before my deadline, a White House official emailed to say that what I
had heard about a smaller event was “just not accurate,” though she did
not give me numbers to demonstrate otherwise. By then I had nailed down
the figures myself.
When my story ran in the paper on Wednesday, it shared space on the front page with one I wrote
about the White House accusing Russia of covering up the Syrian
government’s culpability in a chemical weapons attack on its own people.
And
on Thursday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, revealed the
number of attendees expected at Monday’s Egg Roll: 21,000.
WASHINGTON — For President Trump, the road to changing his mind on China
included a discussion with corporate executives in the State Dining
Room of the White House in February. When the conversation turned to
China’s currency, the executives had a simple message for the president:
You’re wrong.
Mr.
Trump had long insisted that China was devaluing its currency and
should be punished, but the executives pushed back and told him Beijing
had actually stopped. And while Mr. Trump at first resisted — as late as
this month calling the Chinese “world champions” of currency manipulation — after many talks like the one in February he reversed himself, declaring this week that “they’re not currency manipulators” after all.
For
any new occupant of the White House, the early months are like a
graduate seminar in policy crammed into every half-hour meeting. What
made sense on the campaign trail may have little bearing on reality in
the Oval Office, and the education of a president can be rocky even for
former governors or senators. For Mr. Trump, the first president in
American history never to have served in government or the military, the
learning curve is especially steep.
The past week has made that abundantly clear. He discovered that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may not be the “best friend” he imagined and that staying out of the civil war in Syria
was harder than he assumed. He acknowledged that 10 minutes of
listening to China’s president made him realize he did not fully
understand the complexity of North Korea. He dropped his opposition to the Export-Import Bank after learning more about it. And he said he no longer thought NATO was “obsolete.”
Just weeks ago, in the midst of failed efforts to scrap President Barack Obama’s
health care program, he acknowledged that the issue was more involved
than the repeal-and-replace mantra of a campaign rally. “Nobody knew
that health care could be so complicated,”
he said with amazement. Nobody except anyone who had spent any time in
Washington policy making. But for Mr. Trump, never much of a policy
wonk, it was an eye opener.
“As
he governs, he is realizing that the campaign talk doesn’t fit neatly
into governing and he needs a different approach, one that gets
results,” said Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax Media
and a friend of the president’s. “So he will discard things and people
that don’t work out, and those that do work, he will magnify. That’s how
he became successful in business and entertainment.”
One
person’s education, of course, may be another’s betrayal. To some of
his supporters, the pivots suggest that Mr. Trump the outsider may have
been captured by Wall Street veterans in his White House, while Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, is sidelined.
It got to the point that Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist radio show host, focused his Thursday program on defending the president against his own base. “Is Trump selling us out?” Mr. Jones asked. “And the answer is no. In fact, Trump is attempting to co-opt the establishment.”
To
be sure, Mr. Trump remains a historically unpredictable president,
given to impulse, still tilting at the Washington establishment and
supporting ideological measures popular with his conservative base,
including legislation he signed on Thursday targeting Planned Parenthood.
Even as establishment figures seek to influence him, he has not given
up on his most polarizing priorities, and few can forecast where he will
take his presidency. Mr. Trump is still Mr. Trump, and he believes he
got to the White House by following instinct.
But
he arrived at the White House surrounded by advisers who, like him,
were neophytes to governing. His White House chief of staff, chief
strategist, senior adviser, counselor and national economics adviser
have no prior government experience of consequence. Nor do his
secretaries of state, Treasury, commerce, housing or education.
At
first, Mr. Trump dismissed the importance of receiving his intelligence
briefing every day, arguing that he did not learn much. He figured it
would be easy to ban visitors from several predominantly Muslim
countries and build a border wall while forcing Mexico
to pay for it. He had never heard of the congressional procedures that
forced him to push for health care changes before overhauling the tax
code.
But as seasoned hands got access to him, he retreated from some of his provocative promises. He delayed his vow to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after King Abdullah II of Jordan
rushed to Washington to warn him of a violent backlash among Arabs. He
abandoned his intention to bring back torture in terrorism
interrogations after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him it was
ineffective.
He has not appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, ripped up or renegotiated the nuclear agreement with Iran, reversed Mr. Obama’s Cuba policy or terminated his predecessor’s program permitting younger unauthorized immigrants to stay.
So much of this is new to Mr. Trump that only after he publicly accused Mr. Obama
of having wiretapped his telephones last year did he ask aides how the
system of obtaining eavesdropping warrants from a special foreign
intelligence court worked.
The Export-Import Bank,
which helps finance purchases of American exports, is a telling
example. During the campaign, Mr. Trump sided with conservatives who
wanted to eliminate it because the government should not finance large
corporations and effectively pick winners and losers in a free-market
economy. But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump embraced the bank.
“I was very much opposed to Ex-Im Bank because I said what do we need that for IBM and General Electric,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
“It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies will really
be helped, the vendor companies. But also maybe more importantly, other
countries give” such aid, and so “we lose a tremendous amount of
business.”
Fred P. Hochberg, who just stepped down as chairman of the bank, said he was heartened by Mr. Trump’s reversal, noting that Ronald Reagan and Mr. Obama had also opposed the bank only to rethink their positions.
“I’ve
probably never met a chief executive who didn’t have a different
perspective when they occupy that chair than when they’re on the
outside, whether you’re a mayor or you’re running a company,” Mr.
Hochberg said. “And we ought to applaud people when they learn and they
change their minds.”
In the same Journal interview, Mr. Trump described his learning process on North Korea, which is developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. When he invited President Xi Jinping of China to his Mar-a-Lago estate,
Mr. Trump said he believed Beijing could simply pressure North Korea to
stop its activities. Then, he said, Mr. Xi reviewed the history of
China and Korea for him.
“After
listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy,” Mr. Trump
said. “You know, I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power
over” North Korea, he added. “But it’s not what you would think.”
Mr.
Trump sometimes cloaks his evolving positions by declaring victory
before retreating. For instance, he had criticized NATO for not fighting
terrorism and leaving the financial burden to the United States. As he
met with NATO’s secretary general on Wednesday, Mr. Trump asserted that the alliance had changed.
“You
look at the president’s position, where he wanted to see NATO, in
particular, evolve to, and it’s moving exactly in the direction that he
said,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday.
But
the alliance has hardly changed in three months. Just three more
members out of 28 have committed to raise military spending to target
levels by next year, and the only shift in NATO’s approach to terrorism
was to create a new intelligence office before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
Karen Hughes, who was White House counselor to President George W. Bush, said no president can be fully informed about all the issues that will confront him.
“Obviously,
most presidents aren’t nuclear scientists,” she said. “What is
important is that the White House provide a disciplined process for the
experts to present their views, which are often differing. The
president’s role as the chief executive and decision maker is to listen
to, question and probe the expert recommendations, then apply informed
judgment to the decision.”
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The Opinion Pages | Editorials
Mr. Trump’s Fickle Diplomacy
Until a few days ago, Americans and the world had reason to think that the Trump administration’s policy toward Russia
would involve cooperation and harmony and seek to reverse the acrimony
and dysfunction that had come to characterize relations between the
Kremlin and the Obama administration.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump fawned over Russia’s assertively proud leader, Vladimir Putin,
praising him for “doing a great job” and calling him a “stronger
leader” than Barack Obama. As to policy, he seemed almost an apologist
for Mr. Putin’s aggressive behavior in Syria, his annexation of Crimea and his transparent efforts to undermine the NATO
alliance. Findings by the American intelligence community that Russia
had intervened in the election on Mr. Trump’s behalf seemed further
evidence of a bromance, if not something more sinister.
Three
months into the Trump presidency, Russia-American relations are as
tense as ever, a casualty of Mr. Putin’s ruthless behavior and Mr.
Trump’s changing views and whiplash approach to policy, infuriating
Russians who had every reason to believe they would have a pal in the
White House.
While
both men could end up losers, there is a greater chance that Mr. Trump,
a foreign policy neophyte who has bungled his presidential debut, will
find it hard to prevail over the nefarious ways of Mr. Putin, a former
K.G.B. agent. Mr. Putin’s approach to international engagement, which
involves expanding efforts to meddle in countries from Europe to Libya
and beyond, has been largely consistent; Mr. Trump’s has been anything
but.
This, in turn, has shaken the confidence of allies that depend on America for prudent, steady leadership.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s
trip to Moscow on Wednesday was further evidence of how low
Russian-American relations have sunk since Mr. Trump, reversing earlier
opposition to intervening in Syria’s civil war, launched 59 cruise
missiles against a Syrian air base after President Bashar al-Assad used
chemical weapons against civilians. The Russians have strongly supported
Mr. Assad despite his brutality.
Russian
leaders kept Mr. Tillerson wondering for most of the day whether an
encounter with Mr. Putin would take place. Once they did meet — it was
the first between Mr. Putin and a top Trump administration official —
the results were not encouraging. Mr. Putin said bilateral trust has
“degraded,” while Mr. Tillerson said relations were “at a low point.”
Back in New York, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council
resolution condemning Syria’s chemical attack, the eighth time it has
protected Mr. Assad from diplomatic action.
Since the airstrikes, administration officials have steadily increased their criticism of Russia, which has variously denied that
a chemical attack occurred and has blamed it on anti-Assad rebels,
giving Mr. Trump, the master of misdirection, a taste of his own
medicine. On Tuesday, the White House accused Russia of a cover-up. On
Wednesday, Mr. Trump weighed in, saying Russia most likely knew
of Mr. Assad’s plan to gas his own people and promising that Mr. Putin
will come under increasing pressure to abandon Mr. Assad — “truly an
evil person” — and to help end the Syrian civil war.
Some
of Mr. Trump’s critics have wondered whether he ordered the airstrikes,
at least partly, to deflect attention from allegations that he and his
allies had collaborated with the Kremlin during the presidential
campaign. Congressional and F.B.I. investigations into these matters
must continue. The Washington Post
reported on Wednesday that the F.B.I. last summer obtained a secret
court order to monitor the communications of a Trump adviser, Carter
Page, the clearest evidence so far that Mr. Page may have been acting as
an agent of a foreign power.
One
important question is whether the chill in the relationship will make
it harder for Mr. Trump to engage Moscow in the struggle to defeat the
Islamic State in Syria; cooperation on that front, always questionable,
now seems impossible.
Another
is whether an angry Mr. Putin will intensify his mischief in Europe. He
doesn’t have the strongest hand — his economy is in trouble — but he
has thousands of nuclear weapons and a proven ability to chip away at
the Western liberal order. The challenge is for Mr. Trump to develop a
coherent strategy to address those threats.
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The Latest Test for the White House? Pulling Off Its Easter Egg Roll
Trump Administration Hunts for Easter Eggs, and Senior Staff
The White House is as much as two
months behind recent standards for presidential transitions, leaving 90
percent of the positions considered critical to leadership unfilled. It
did, however, manage to order the eggs for the Easter egg roll.
By A.J. CHAVAR and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS on Publish Date April 11, 2017.
Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times.
Watch in Times Video »
WASHINGTON — President Trump received an urgent warning in February, informing him of a crucial date he was about to miss.
“FYI
manufacturing deadlines for the Easter eggs are near,” said a Twitter
post directed at Mr. Trump; the first lady, Melania Trump; and the
president’s daughter Ivanka Trump. “Please reach out!”
The
message came from Wells Wood Turning & Finishing, the company that
supplies commemorative wooden eggs for the annual White House Easter Egg
Roll, the 138-year-old celebration that has drawn 35,000 people to the
South Lawn in recent years.
The
staff of the company, based in Buckfield, Me., wondered whether the
Trumps planned to continue distributing the wooden eggs as party favors,
or whether they were even going to have a White House Easter Egg Roll
at all.
By
early March, the White House announced that the roll was on — Monday,
to be exact — and soon followed up with a rush order for the wooden
eggs.
By
that time, the ovoid uncertainty had raised a question perhaps not as
consequential as investigations into Russian interference in the
presidential election, a legally dubious travel ban and a collapsed
health care bill, but no less a window into the inner workings of the
Trump administration: Could this White House, plagued by slow hiring and
lacking an on-site first lady, manage to pull off the largest, most
elaborate and most heavily scrutinized public event of the year?
“It’s
the single most high-profile event that takes place at the White House
each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well
they put it on,” said Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of
Easter Egg Rolls as director of the White House Visitors Office under
President Bill Clinton. “I’m really concerned for the Trump people,
because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing
is all hands on deck.”
White
House party catastrophes have been the stuff of presidential nightmares
in the past. During his first year in office, President Barack Obama
drew harsh criticism for lax security procedures after a pair of
aspiring reality-show celebrities successfully crashed a state dinner honoring the prime minister of India, with one of them managing to buttonhole Mr. Obama for a handshake.
The
late start in planning by the Trump White House points to a smaller and
less ambitious Egg Roll than in previous years. There may be half as
many guests, a fraction of the number of volunteers to manage the
invasion of the South Lawn, and military bands in place of A-list
entertainers like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel and Silentó
who have performed for Egg Rolls past.
White
House officials did not respond to several weeks’ worth of inquiries
about the Easter Egg Roll, typically a heavily and enthusiastically
promoted affair, and declined to provide basic information such as how
many people are expected to attend. It is unclear, for instance, whether
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, will reprise his
appearance in a bunny suit for the event, as he did a decade ago when
George W. Bush was president and Mr. Spicer was an aide in the Office of
the United States Trade Representative.
Stephanie
Grisham, who started as Mrs. Trump’s communications director on Monday,
had previously denied that the event was being scaled back from past
years. But she acknowledged on Tuesday that attendance this year would
be “a bit less,” based on feedback from former officials who had said
“the event had become so large that many children were not able to enjoy
the planned activities.”
“Our
team has been working very hard to make this year’s event a success,”
Ms. Grisham said. “I am confident that the success of this year’s Easter
Egg Roll will speak for itself.”
The
evidence points to a quickly thrown-together affair that people close
to the planning said would probably draw about 20,000 people —
substantially smaller than last year’s Easter Egg Roll, which drew
37,000. It will be staffed by 500 volunteers, Ms. Grisham said, half the
usual. Ms. Grisham said she did not have “firm numbers” on the overall
number of attendees, and those who provided estimates did so on the
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the
plans for the Easter Egg Roll, which are still evolving just a week
before the event.
The
White House has ordered 40,000 of the commemorative eggs — about half
of the roughly 85,000 ordered in 2016 — with 18,000 to be given away at
the Easter Egg Roll and another 22,000 available for sale, according to
Lara Kline, the vice president for marketing and communications at the
White House Historical Association, the official retailer.
The relatively small number, Ms. Kline said, “is due to the limited manufacturing window for this year’s Easter Egg Roll.”
The employees at Wells Wood Turning were not alone in wondering whether the White House would ever get in touch.
Washington-area
public schools that normally receive blocks of tickets for as many as
4,000 children have yet to hear from the White House, according to
representatives for school systems in the District of Columbia;
Arlington, Va.; and Alexandria, Va. Several groups representing military
families, who have accounted for as many as 3,000 guests in recent
years, also said they had yet to be contacted.
“I’ve
had quite a few families from across the country reach out and say:
‘Hey, are we getting tickets? Our family wants to drive in for the
event,’” said Ashley Broadway-Mack, the president of the American
Military Partner Association, which represents the families of gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members and has received
tickets for five to 10 of them for each of the last several years.
“Unfortunately, the Trump administration has not reached out about it.”
But
Ms. Grisham said on Tuesday that tickets had been set aside for
schools, children’s hospitals and military families. She could not say
how many.
Even
Curious George and Elmo did not know for sure that the Easter Egg Roll
was happening until late last month, when the White House first
contacted PBS Kids to ask if it could provide costumed characters.
“We
just got word about this year’s Egg Roll and are working on planning,”
Jennifer Rankin Byrne, the senior director of media relations for PBS,
said on March 20.
The
Easter Egg Roll has been crowded in past years with cast members from
“Sesame Street,” but this year, there will be a lone emissary.
“PBS
asked us to participate with them, and we agreed to provide a ‘Sesame
Street’ character,” said Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, the vice president
for strategic communications for Sesame Workshop. She declined to say
which character would attend, referring questions to the White House.
Members
of Congress have not received word from the White House about whether
they will get tickets to distribute to their constituents. One aide to a
Republican lawmaker said White House officials “seem to be a bit behind
schedule.”
Nor
have the organizers of the Yoga Garden featured on the South Lawn
during Obama-era Easter Egg Rolls been asked to share their asanas.
“No
one has reached out to me about the 2017 event,” said Leah Cullis, the
yogi who coordinated the Yoga Garden for all eight of the Obamas’ Easter
Egg Rolls.
Mrs.
Trump, who lives in New York and has had a limited presence in
Washington since her husband was sworn in, has been slow to hire a staff
for the East Wing, which typically takes the lead on the Easter Egg
Roll. She named a chief of staff and social secretary in early February
but has yet to announce a director for the Visitors Office, normally the
crucial player in the daunting execution of the event.
“You
don’t understand what a beast this thing is to plan until you go and
plan your first one,” said Ellie Schafer, who organized Easter Egg Rolls
for the Obamas as the director of the White House Visitors Office from
2009 to 2016. “Every administration tries to put its own stamp on it,
but the stakes are high because it’s such a Washington tradition, and
people just love it and have very strong feelings about it.”
Ms.
Bates, whose memoir “White House Story” documents the challenges of
planning Clinton-era Easter Egg Rolls, said the event was a window — up
to a point — into the competence of an administration.
“If you can pull off an Easter Egg Roll,” she said, “you can do anything.”
In the Garden: A Welcome Sign of Spring
By Charles Kidder
Perhaps
the first plant I could recognize and name as a child was the daffodil,
a welcome sight and fragrance after a long New York winter. And
although native to the Mediterranean, daffodils (Narcissus species) have
been in Virginia since at least the middle of the seventeenth century.
Beginning in the 1890s, Gloucester County became a
center of daffodil production for much of the eastern United States.
Much of this revolved around “wild” or naturalized daffodils that were
cut and shipped north. By the middle of the twentieth century, this
industry was rapidly dying off for a variety of reasons. But Gloucester
County still has one daffodil breeder of note and continues to celebrate
its floral heritage with the Daffodil Festival on the last weekend of
March. More on that later.
The various Narcissus species, hybrids and
cultivars are commonly referred to as either daffodils, jonquils or even
simply narcissus, the latter especially when referring to the paper
whites commonly forced indoors. The term jonquil is commonly used in
certain regions for any daffodil, but technically refers only to one
group that has narrow reed-like foliage. The various daffodils are
divided into 13 divisions—or 12, if you believe some sources—that are
based on flower shape and heritage. For example, Division 1 daffodils
are called Trumpets, since the central portion or trumpet is quite long.
Regardless of division, colors range from yellow to white, perhaps with
some pink or orange in the trumpets. If you seek out specialty
nurseries, hundreds of cultivars are available.
All daffodils have similar cultural requirements.
As for the amount of sun they want, the more the better. Part sun, or
about six hours per day, is sufficient, but less sun than that will lead
to reduced blooming, even though the plants may soldier on for a long
time. And sunlight in a deciduous woodland does not really count as full
sunlight. As for soil, good drainage is important to avoid bulb rot. If
your soil is unusually sodden, either amend it with gravel or put
daffodils in a raised bed.
Daffodil bulbs should be planted at a depth equal
to about three times their diameter, so a two-inch bulb should be six
inches deep. Six inches is also a good distance between bulbs. Farther
apart and they lose visual impact; closer, and they will require
division sooner. Bulbs will look funny planted like soldiers in a
straight line, so if you have ten bulbs, better to either plant them in
two groups of five, or in a staggered double row. If you are planting a
very large number, you can avoid an overly orderly appearance by picking
up a handful and tossing them to the general area in which you wish to
plant.
There are any number of “new, improved,
back-saving!!” bulb planters out there. Use whatever works best for you,
which might just be an ordinary trowel or even a garden shovel. And
remember: nothing says you have to plant one bulb at a time. You can
take a spade and dig up a good-sized hole with one or two punches, and
then throw in three to five bulbs. For even larger areas, a rototiller
might be the quickest option. And do the bulbs have to be pointy-side
up? That’s the ideal, but the shoot will always get turned around and
pointed toward the sky anyway. If you’re in a hurry, ensuring that the
bulbs are at least on their side would be a good compromise.
Amending your soil with compost will definitely
give your daffodils a boost, but there’s no need to fertilize when
planting—which of course is not now, but in mid-to-late fall. In very
early spring, a balanced fertilizer—about 5-5-5 or 10-10-10 is
best—should be sprinkled around the plants just as their foliage
emerges. (You can also do this in the fall, but that assumes you’ll
remember where your daffodils are!) And speaking of feeding your
daffodils, we all know what to do with their foliage, which is there to
provide nutrients for the bulb, right? Doing nothing is perfectly okay.
Or when the foliage turns yellow and lies on the ground, you can throw
some mulch on it if the sight offends you. Do not cut the foliage off
while it’s still green or tie it up in cutesy knots! That prevents
movement of nutrients down to the bulb; plus, it takes a lot of valuable
gardening time.
But back to Gloucester County. The annual Daffodil
Festival takes place on the last weekend of March and includes the usual
attractions: a parade, a queen, entertainers, a race, a car show, and
of course, daffodils. (A full schedule is available on the county’s
website. There’s also a link to the history of daffodil farming in this
corner of Virginia.) On Saturday they will be running frequent buses
over to Brent and Becky’s Bulbs for tours and shopping. Brent and Becky
Heath own a business that has been in the family for several
generations, at one time operating as the Daffodil Mart. Although they
now sell many other types of bulbs, daffodils are still a specialty,
with over 200 varieties available.
Once planted, daffodils tend to naturalize, meaning
they spread slowly, but never seem to become invasive. Part of their
secret to longevity might be their poisonous nature: deer and other
critters don’t bother them, so you can enjoy your host of daffodils for
many years.
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
we share a very special gift by beloved and very popular Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honor member Letizia Mancino.
We know you'll enjoy it as much as we do.
Thanks a Million, dear Letizia Mancino.
You are an outstanding writer and artist.
We are so proud and happy to have you with us.
Letizia writes: One should not underestimate Wolfgang Hampel’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty MacDonald’s friends.
We agree. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang Hampel for doing this. You founded Betty MacDonald Fan Club with four members.
Now we have members in 40 countries around the world. A dream came true.
Mary Holmes did an excellent job in translating this great story.
Thank you so much dear Mary Holmes.
We are really very grateful.
All the best to Letizia, Wolfgang and Mary and to all Betty MacDonald Fan Club fans from all over the world!
Lenard
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
translated by Mary Holmes
We were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival.
They were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends, even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw!
Our hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the 16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night.
We immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.”
Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects where I could and staggered down.
In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!”
“ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky- scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy!
“Betty, are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?”
I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry terminal in West Seattle.”
Betty explained to me “The island lies in Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must have seen it when you were landing!”
“Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here?
“Sure to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and enjoy it.”
“Thank you Betty!”
I find a table on the terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the blue water.
Betty plays with my words:
“Vashon Island is a big cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.”
“Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!”
But I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off my chair!
“ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!)
“Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters.
“Geoduck no good for you!”
Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.”
“Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear!
“Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.”
During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite.
“Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence, how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please, leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No, she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree
Which has been entrusted to my garden
Offers a feast of secret significance,
For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing.
That has become divided within itself?
Are these two who have chosen each other,
So that we know them as one?
The friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust between us.
“Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from the east and one from the west!”
“A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America, Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty, I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one has to order something else.
“That’s why all those people gossiping at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad. The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards the rising sun.
Is this Mr. Tigerli?
 |
