Hello 'Pussy' it's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking:
A
traditional president would have reacted carefully to the London Bridge
terrorist attack by instilling calm, being judicious about facts and
appealing to the country’s better angels.
You, of course, are no traditional president. You reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of your more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
You, of course, are no traditional president. You reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of your more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
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,
if you know who is this very beautiful lady and the handsome young guy besides James Bond send us their names, please.
Deadline: toda
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 '.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
A Betty MacDonald fan club fan told me that Betty MacDonald wasn't crazy about the movie The Egg and I.
Is this true and what do you think of the The Egg and I movie and the Ma and Pa Kettle sequels?
That's a great photo. You can see Betty MacDonald - and our Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck!
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
A Betty MacDonald fan club fan told me that Betty MacDonald wasn't crazy about the movie The Egg and I.
Is this true and what do you think of the The Egg and I movie and the Ma and Pa Kettle sequels?
That's a great photo. You can see Betty MacDonald - and our Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck!
Betty MacDonald fan club fans are especially fond of egg cookbooks and of celebrity
recipes. The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray was published in a booklet form by the National Egg Board as an
advertising compliment to their movie, "The Egg and I."
In 1947, Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stared in "The Egg and I." The movie was based on Betty MacDonald's book of the same name. It was a wildly popular account of her life as a young bride on a chicken farm. When I say The Egg and I was a popular book, I mean that in less than a year it sold a million copies! The film rights were quickly sold and in 1947 the book became a movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.
In addition to Colbert and MacMurray, the film co-stared Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle. (The co-stars have nothing to do with egg recipes, but I am a huge fan of Ma and Pa Kettle) Main was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress but she lost to Celeste Holm in "Gentleman's Agreement." (It is so hard to win for comedy!) After all the publicity, practically everyone involved with the book was sued. According to the folks down on the farm, old Mrs. MacDonald portrayed them negatively and they wanted monetary gains for being made to look foolish! And they did indeed get paid, but enough about them.
The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray features introductions by the two stars, a recipe from each bearing their names, and a handful of additional egg recipes. What do they say about the egg?
According to MacMurray: "The egg, for my money, is the best friend of any man ever trapped in the kitchen."
I love eggs as much as the next person, but I am not sure I would equate them with voting rights. What a difference seventy years makes. Well we are still eating eggs, still voting, and still drinking. Of course, today we are drinking alcohol. In 1947 such drinking, especially endorsed by the family friendly National Egg Board, was frowned upon. Here is an eggy julep for you, in the truest sense of a sweet, flavored drink, as opposed to the kind that most often feature a good shot of bourbon. Egg and I Julep
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups orange juice, strained
1/3 cup lemon juice, strained
Crushed ice, club soda
Blend eggs, sugar and salt. Add fruit juices. Shake or beat until sugar is dissolved. pour over finely cracked ice to fill tall glasses 1/2 full. Add club soda slowly. Stir.
Serve promptly.
Feel free to add a big ol' glug of bourbon
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
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.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder 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.
We are working on a Who is who? in Betty MacDonald's books.
Betty MacDonald's very witty sister Alison Bard Burnett shared her unique memories in these treasure interviews with Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
Don't miss Vita Magica on May 30th, please.
There are several writers reading stories about their Heidelberg experiences and you'll be able to hear the original very famous Heidelberg songs.
Betty MacDonald influenced many writers, artists and fans to move to Washington State.
They adore her books and her unique descriptions of nature.
Patricia Longhi is one of many examples.
What are the reasons so many people love Evergreen State?
Don't miss the very interesting article below.
Posted in Washington May 03, 2017
11 Completely Absurd Reasons To Love Washington
Yes, Washington is breathtakingly beautiful… and our scenery is diverse… and our produce is second to none. That being said, when you live in the Evergreen State long enough, you start to love it for its quirks. You develop quite a sense of humor about your home, and when people ask what you adore so much about it, you can hardly contain yourself.Even if you don’t agree with these 11 reasons to love Washington, you must admit they’re valid, if not a bit silly.
see article below
That's such a great story of Vashon Islander Kay Longhi.
Don't miss this very interesting story, please.
Reading this delightful story I'd like to move to Vashon Island.
Islander Kay Longhi and her twin sister were only 6 years old when they moved to Vashon from Chicago in the 1950s, but Longhi, now in her 60s and still living on Vashon, can vividly recall the move and the events leading up to it.
The decision to leave the Midwest was made by Longhi’s mother, Patricia Longhi, who Kay said was tired of living in cities and longed for the same kind of authenticity she witnessed on childhood vacations to a farm in Maine. Patricia found that opportunity in a 1954 radio interview with infamous island author Betty MacDonald.
“Arthur Godfrey interviewed Betty MacDonald on his radio program. She talked about her book ‘Onions in the Stew,’ and it intrigued Mother,” Kay Longhi said. “When Daddy came home, she announced that we were moving to Vashon.”
( see article below )
I totally agree the author of an oustanding Betty MacDonald biography needs a very good sense of humor.
We will be able to offer you very witty and exciting stories because of our outstanding Betty MacDonald research and many interviews with Betty MacDonald's family and friends by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald fan club items including new Betty MacDonald interviews by Wolfgang Hampel.
Work and life of Betty MacDonald had been honored by Wolfgang Hampel in Vita Magica.
More Betty MacDonald events will follow.
Anyway - we agree that Betty MacDonald's brilliant sister Alison Bard Burnett and Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel have a very good sense of humor.
Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents enjoy these unique very witty interviews and new ones will follow.
We are looking for signed or dedicated first editions in great condition with dust jackets by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen for our fans.
Betty MacDonald Memorial Award Winner Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography and new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Join one of our Betty MacDonald fan club research teams, please.
Thanks a million in advance for your outstanding support.
Let's talk about Betty MacDonald fan club book cover contest.
You can vote for your favourite Betty MacDonald book cover.
Deadline: June 30, 2017
Betty MacDonald fan club book cover contest winner will be owner of a signed first edition of one of Betty MacDonald's books.
Send us your mail, please and maybe you'll be the winner of Betty MacDonald fan club surprise.
Good luck!
Our most important research item is an updated Betty MacDonald documentary with lots of new info and interviews with Betty MacDonald, her family and friends.
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.
Reading this updated Betty MacDonald biography you'll learn the true story of many personalities in Betty MacDonald's books for example the mysterious and rather strange Ms. Dorita Hess from 'Anybody can do anything'.
Tell us, please what should a Betty MacDonald biography include?
Don't hesitate to send us your thoughts, please.
I'd say a real Betty MacDonald biography should also include fascinating info on Betty MacDonald's fascinating brother and sisters including adopted sister Madge.
As we can see Betty MacDonald's very witty sister Alison Bard Burnett got so many fans because of her unique interviews with Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
We are going to offer some interviews by Wolfgang Hampel, never published before.
Many fans adore 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 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 May.
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.
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.
A
traditional president would have reacted carefully to the London Bridge
terrorist attack by instilling calm, being judicious about facts and
appealing to the country’s better angels.
Donald Trump, of course, is no traditional president. He reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of his more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
Before British authorities detailed exactly what happened on the London Bridge, before they blamed Islamist extremism and even before they publicly concluded it was an act of terrorism, President Trump fired off a tweet to his 31 million followers: An unconfirmed bulletin from the Drudge Report.
“Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge …,” read the Drudge tweet, which Trump retweeted.
Before offering his condolences to the British people, the victims of three gruesome attacks in as many months, Trump pecked out a second tweet. “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” the president wrote, calling on U.S. courts to affirm his administration’s “travel ban” on people from six majority-Muslim nations.
Donald Trump, of course, is no traditional president. He reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of his more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
Before British authorities detailed exactly what happened on the London Bridge, before they blamed Islamist extremism and even before they publicly concluded it was an act of terrorism, President Trump fired off a tweet to his 31 million followers: An unconfirmed bulletin from the Drudge Report.
“Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge …,” read the Drudge tweet, which Trump retweeted.
Before offering his condolences to the British people, the victims of three gruesome attacks in as many months, Trump pecked out a second tweet. “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” the president wrote, calling on U.S. courts to affirm his administration’s “travel ban” on people from six majority-Muslim nations.
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.
Greetings,
Andrea
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.
Greetings,
Andrea
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
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Greta Larson
Trump reacts to London terror by stoking fear and renewing feud with mayor
Donald Trump, of course, is no traditional president. He reacted impulsively to Saturday night’s carnage by stoking panic and fear, being indiscreet with details of the event and capitalizing on it to advocate for one of his more polarizing policies and to advance a personal feud.
Before British authorities detailed exactly what happened on the London Bridge, before they blamed Islamist extremism and even before they publicly concluded it was an act of terrorism, President Trump fired off a tweet to his 31 million followers: An unconfirmed bulletin from the Drudge Report.
“Fears of new terror attack after van ‘mows down 20 people’ on London Bridge …,” read the Drudge tweet, which Trump retweeted.
Before offering his condolences to the British people, the victims of three gruesome attacks in as many months, Trump pecked out a second tweet. “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” the president wrote, calling on U.S. courts to affirm his administration’s “travel ban” on people from six majority-Muslim nations.
President
Trump holds a news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May
at the White House on Jan. 27. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
On Sunday morning, however, once the breadth of the horror in London was clear, Trump was back on Twitter. He criticized the city’s mayor — Sadiq Khan, a liberal Muslim and an old Trump foil — for not being tough enough protecting his citizens.
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” Trump tweeted.
Trump took Khan’s quote out of context. The mayor had urged Londoners, in a BBC interview that was replayed, not to be “alarmed” by an increased police presence in the city. He said that after condemning the “deliberate and cowardly attack” as “barbaric.”
A Khan spokesperson swatted away Trump’s taunt, saying in a statement that the mayor “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police — including armed officers — on the streets.”
Trump also stoked the long-running and emotionally-charged national debate over gun laws by pointing out that the London attackers did not use firearms. “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!,” Trump tweeted.
Britain has some of the world’s strictest laws restricting gun purchases. The death toll in London might have been higher had the attackers used the kind of semiautomatic weapons that are more easily attainable in the United States.
London
Mayor Sadiq Khan, flanked by emergency workers, visits the site of a
derailed tram in Croydon last November. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty
Images)
With Trump spending another day at his private golf club in Sterling, Va., the White House’s social media director, Dan Scavino, revived an old Trump-Khan feud on Twitter and scolded the mayor to “WAKE UP!!!!”
Chris Lu, who served as White House Cabinet secretary under President Obama, was aghast.
“The fact that the White House social media director is commenting before the national security leadership has spoken is yet another example of Trump’s ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ attitude towards handling international incidents,” Lu said.
Historian Robert Dallek said Trump is exhibiting an entirely new style of presidential leadership. “Trump rubs everything raw,” he said. “He makes it more acerbic, more contentious.”
Dallek, who has studied former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who steered the country through Pearl Harbor, was unsparing in his critique of Trump’s response to the London attack.
“There’s something so petty about this man,” Dallek said. “What we’re dealing with is someone who is, and I think this is the best term, an egomaniac. Everything has to revolve around him — he knows better, he’s right, he one-ups everything.”
Trump’s supporters are likely to see his swift flurry of commentary as evidence of strength and unwavering resolve — a leader dispatching with political correctness and caution to deliver an assessment that is authentic and immediate.
This is just how Trump behaved on the campaign trail. He was quick to pounce on terrorist incidents in Paris and Brussels, as well as Orlando and San Bernardino, Calif., with tough vows, even if he was loose with his facts.
Last month, after a suicide bomber killed 22 others and injured scores more at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, U.K., Trump labeled terrorists “evil losers” and vowed to obliterate “this wicked ideology.”
Trump last week also prematurely called a deadly attack in a casino in the Philippines a “terrorist attack.” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte later said it was not the work of terrorists but a “crazy” gunman.
Trump’s response to this weekend’s London Bridge incident won praise Sunday morning from friend Nigel Farage, who as head of the UK Independence Party led last year’s Brexit movement, which Trump supported and saw as a precursor to his own election.
In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” a show Trump is known to watch frequently, Farage sharply criticized Khan and May’s responses to the London attack as too timid and politically correct. He also lamented that the city had become, in his assessment, a safe harbor for Muslim “radicals.”
“We don’t just want speeches given outside 10 Downing Street,” Farage said. “We want genuine action. And if there’s not action, then the calls for internment will grow.”
Trump echoed Farage’s broad sentiment, assailing political correctness in the United States as well. “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse,” Trump said on Twitter.
Although Trump and May have a relationship that both countries describe as positive and productive, Trump has long tangled with Khan, a member of the Labour Party who was elected mayor last year, London’s first Muslim chief executive.
Khan has positioned himself as a moral and ideological foil to Trump. During last year’s U.S. presidential campaign, Trump proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States, but suggested he would make an exception for London’s mayor. Khan responded by saying Trump had an “ignorant view of Islam.”
This January, Khan criticized Trump’s travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim countries — it was later revised to six. The mayor called it “shameful and cruel,” saying that the policy “flies in the face of the values of freedom and tolerance.”
And just last week, Khan joined the chorus of foreign leaders denouncing Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
In the aftermath of the London attack, Trump’s critics chastised him for continuing his feud with Khan.
“I don’t think that a major terrorist attack like this is the time to be divisive and to criticize a mayor who’s trying to organize his city’s response to this attack,” former vice president Al Gore said Sunday on CNN. “The terrorists want us to live in a state of constant fear.”
Politics
Trump Appears Unlikely to Hinder Comey’s Testimony About Russia Inquiry
“The date for the hearing was just set,” Mr. Spicer said. “I haven’t spoken to counsel yet; I don’t know how they’ll respond.”
Mr.
Comey, who was fired by Mr. Trump last month, has been called to
testify Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is
conducting a wide-ranging investigation into how the Russian government
meddled in the presidential election and whether Mr. Trump’s associates
colluded with the Russians.
On
Friday evening, House Democrats sent a letter to the White House
counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, saying there was no case for the president
to exert the privilege on Mr. Comey.
Invoking
executive privilege can be a politically treacherous move, recalling
past scandals like Watergate, in which President Richard M. Nixon
asserted the power in efforts to block congressional investigations.
President Barack Obama used the legal authority once, during
congressional inquiries after weapons ended up in the possession of
Mexican gun cartels.
Presidents
have often moved to keep their records and other communications with
senior officials private until they leave office, on the theory that
confidentiality is crucial to their ability to receive unvarnished
advice on sensitive matters. But seeking a restraining order barring
testimony by Mr. Comey, who is now a private citizen, would be
unprecedented.
Mr.
Comey is expected to testify about several conversations he had with
the president, including one in which Mr. Trump encouraged him to stop
investigating his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn,
according to a memo by Mr. Comey. In another conversation during a
one-on-one dinner at the White House, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to
pledge his loyalty, and Mr. Comey declined to do so, according to Mr.
Comey’s associates.
Mr.
Comey, according to people close to him, recorded his discussions with
Mr. Trump in memos he wrote shortly after each interaction.
Democrats
have said that Mr. Trump’s conversations with Mr. Comey show that the
president was trying to obstruct the F.B.I.’s investigation into Mr.
Flynn, who is under scrutiny for calls he had with the Russian
ambassador and for work he did for a firm that had ties to the Turkish
government.
Legal experts have said that Mr. Trump’s tweets about Mr. Comey would damage any claim of executive privilege.
“James
Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before
he starts leaking to the press!” Mr. Trump said in one post, shortly
after The New York Times reported the request for the loyalty pledge.
Trump Hands the Chinese a Gift: The Chance for Global Leadership
WASHINGTON — President Trump has managed to turn America First into America Isolated.
In
pulling out of the Paris climate accord, Mr. Trump has created a vacuum
of global leadership that presents ripe opportunities to allies and
adversaries alike to reorder the world’s power structure. His decision
is perhaps the greatest strategic gift to the Chinese, who are eager to
fill the void that Washington is leaving around the world on everything
from setting the rules of trade and environmental standards to financing
the infrastructure projects that give Beijing vast influence.
Mr. Trump’s remarks in the Rose Garden on Thursday were also a retreat from leadership on the one issue, climate change,
that unified America’s European allies, its rising superpower
competitor in the Pacific, and even some of its adversaries, including
Iran. He did it over the objections of much of the American business
community and his secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, who embraced the
Paris accord when he ran Exxon Mobil, less out of a sense of moral
responsibility and more as part of the new price of doing business
around the world.
As
Mr. Trump announced his decision, the Paris agreement’s goals were
conspicuously reaffirmed by friends and rivals alike, including nations
where it would have the most impact, like China and India, as well as
the major European Union states and Russia.
The
announcement came only days after he declined to give his NATO allies a
forceful reaffirmation of America’s commitment to their security, and a
few months after he abandoned a trade deal, the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, that was designed to put the United States at the center of
a trade group that would compete with — and, some argue, contain —
China’s fast-growing economic might.
“The
irony here is that people worried that Trump would come in and make the
world safe for Russian meddling,” said Richard N. Haass, the president
of the Council on Foreign Relations, who was briefly considered, then
rejected, for a top post in the new administration. “He may yet do
that,” Mr. Haass added, “but he has certainly made the world safe for
Chinese influence.”
The
president, and his defenders, argue that such views are held by an
elite group of globalists who have lost sight of the essential element
of American power: economic growth. Mr. Trump made that argument
explicitly in the Rose Garden with his contention that the Paris accord
amounted to nothing more than “a massive redistribution of United States
wealth to other countries.”
In
short, he turned the concept of the agreement on its head. While
President Barack Obama argued that the United Nations Green Climate Fund
— a financial institution to help poorer nations combat the effects of
climate change — would benefit the world, Mr. Trump argued that the
American donations to the fund, which he halted, would beggar the
country.
“Our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of America’s sovereignty,” Mr. Trump said.
That,
in short, encapsulates how Mr. Trump’s view of preserving American
power differs from all of his predecessors, back to President Harry S.
Truman. His proposed cuts to contributions to the United Nations and to
American foreign aid are based on a presumption that only economic and
military power count. “Soft power” — investments in alliances and
broader global projects — are, in his view, designed to drain influence,
not add to it, evident in the fact that he did not include the State
Department among the agencies that are central to national security, and
thus require budget increases.
It
will take years to determine the long-term effects of his decision to
abandon the Paris agreement, to the environment and to the global order.
It will not break alliances: Europe is hardly about to embrace a
broken, corrupt Russia, and China’s neighbors are simultaneously drawn
to its immense wealth and repelled by its self-interested ambitions.
But
Mr. Trump has added to the arguments of leaders around the world that
it is time to rebalance their portfolios by effectively selling some of
their stock in Washington. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has
already announced her plan to hedge her bets, declaring last weekend
after meeting Mr. Trump that she had realized “the times when we could
completely rely on others are, to an extent, over.”
That
may be temporary: It is still possible that Mr. Trump’s announcement on
Thursday will amount to a blip in history, a withdrawal that takes so
long — four years — that it could be reversed after the next
presidential election. But for now it leaves the United States declaring
that it is better outside the accord than in, a position that, besides
America, has so far only been taken by Syria and Nicaragua. (Syria did
not sign on because it is locked in civil war, Nicaragua because it
believes the world’s richest nations did not sacrifice enough.)
But
it is the relative power balance with China that absorbs anyone who
studies the dance of great powers. Even before Mr. Trump’s announcement,
President Xi Jinping had figured out how to embrace the rhetoric, if
not the substance, of global leadership.
Mr.
Xi is no free trader, and his nation has overtaken the United States as
the greatest emitter of carbon by a factor of two. Only three years
ago, it was a deal between Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi that laid the groundwork
for what became the broader Paris agreement.
Yet
for months the Chinese president has been stepping unto the breach,
including giving speeches at the annual meeting of the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that made it sound like China alone was
ready to adopt the role of global standard-setter that Washington has
occupied since the end of World War II.
“What
the Paris accord represented, in a fractured world, was finally some
international consensus, led by two big polluters, China and the United
States, on a common course of action,” said Graham T. Allison, the
author of a new book, “Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?”
“What
you’d expect us to do is sustain our position by maintaining our most
important relationship around the world and address what the citizens of
our allies consider their most important problems: economic growth and
an environment that sustains their children and grandchildren,’’ he
added. “Instead, we are absenting the field.”
That
sentiment was evident on Thursday in Berlin. Just hours before Mr.
Trump spoke, China’s premier, Li Keqiang, stood alongside Ms. Merkel,
and used careful words as he described China as a champion of the
accord. China believed that fighting climate change was a an
“international responsibility,” Mr. Li said, the kind of declaration
that American diplomats have made for years when making the case to
combat terrorism or nuclear proliferation or hunger.
China
has long viewed the possibility of a partnership with Europe as a
balancing strategy against the United States. Now, with Mr. Trump
questioning the basis of NATO, the Chinese are hoping that their
partnership with Europe on the climate accord may allow that
relationship to come to fruition faster than their grand strategy
imagined.
Naturally,
the Chinese are using the biggest weapon in their quiver: Money. Their
plan, known as “One Belt, One Road,” is meant to buy China influence
from Ethiopia to Britain, from Malaysia to Hungary, all the while
refashioning the global economic order.
Mr.
Xi announced the sweeping initiative last month, envisioning spending
$1 trillion on huge infrastructure projects across Africa, Asia and
Europe. It is a plan with echoes of the Marshall Plan and other American
efforts at aid and investment, but on a scale with little precedent in
modern history. And the clear subtext is that it is past time to toss
out the rules of aging, American-dominated international institutions,
and to conduct commerce on China’s terms.
Trump and Merkel Hate Each Other. So What?
BERLIN
— The Atlantic is rough these days, as stormy disregard blows from the
United States to Europe and back. After President Trump attacked
Germany’s trade practices, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a campaign
rally in Munich that “the times we can completely rely on others are
somewhat over” and that “we Europeans must take our destiny into our own
hands.” Mr. Trump reacted with a tweeted threat, citing Germany’s
failure to meet NATO’s military spending goals, saying “this will
change.”
Ms.
Merkel’s statement went viral, and by the next day her spokesman
Steffen Seibert was doing damage control. He stressed that Ms. Merkel
had called for more European independence before (which is correct) and
that the chancellor is “a deeply convinced trans-Atlanticist” (which is
correct, too). And it is true: On many levels, despite all the
rhetorical thunder, little has changed in substance, so far.
Military
experts say that within NATO, day-to-day business is somewhat hampered
because positions on the American side are still unfilled but that it’s
otherwise pretty much business as usual. They point out that the
American brigade deployed in January 2017 to reassure Eastern Europe
about Russia is still there.
The
same is true for economic and environmental cooperation, at least in
Germany. Scientists continue working together, and Germany’s economics
minister, Brigitte Zypries, recently had a constructive, friendly
meeting in Washington with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the United
States trade representative Robert Lighthizer.
And
yet Ms. Merkel’s statement was much more than just campaign chatter.
Yes, she needs to assert independence in the face of a
stronger-than-expected challenge from the center-left Social Democrats.
But she meant what she said, and her statement accurately captures a new
direction in trans-Atlantic relations.
As
Mr. Seibert said, this isn’t the first time a European has called for
self-sufficiency from America. It has been an annoying refrain for
decades. But suddenly it’s being sung with new urgency — and excitement.
For
all the fears of Brexit and the National Front ripping apart Europe,
the continent has an unprecedented opportunity to move closer together.
Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 created a need to act in
solidarity against an outside threat. For all the bitter fights, the
union came out stronger for its struggles during the financial and
refugee crises.
The
German-French axis, the heart of the European project, is likely to
gain new strength with the energetic President Emmanuel Macron in Paris,
who won the election on a decidedly pro-European ticket. And the 2016
Brexit referendum put the European Union in fight-or-flight mode — and
many seem to opt for fight along with France and Germany.
None
of this has anything to do with Mr. Trump, who came into the story
late. But with all this already underway, he will undoubtedly accelerate
the trend away from the United States and toward a more unified,
independent continent.
Don’t
expect a sudden break, though. It’s not what Europe does. Take all the
recent steps toward a unified military force. At last fall’s summit in
Bratislava, Slovakia, the big achievement was asking the European
Commission to come up with a “concrete implementation plan” to better
coordinate the 27 national military forces. “This could have quite an
impact,” said Claudia Major, a senior associate at the German Institute
for International and Security Affairs — which is true, but also an
indicator of how slowly things move on the continent.
And
without an independent military, Europe is going to continue to rely on
the United States. The European Union states together spend about half
of what the United States spends on its military. It would take the
European states decades to catch up.
In
other words, the current trans-Atlantic contretemps are real and will
have a significant impact — with limits. Europe won’t be going its own
way. Whatever its leaders and publics think about America, they need it,
and so their quest for self-sufficiency will be more about leveling the
playing field than leaving the game.
What
really threatens the trans-Atlantic relationship is not the European
quest for more self-sufficiency but the loss of trust that Ms. Merkel
made so clear in her comments in Munich. We will continue to need the
United States, but that need will be tempered by a worrying loss of
trust in its leadership.
Over
the next few years, trans-Atlantic relations will be defined by a
single question: Which is more important, the practical administration
of tangible mutual economic and defense interests, which will continue
unimpeded, or the intangible but vitally important emotional bond, which
is fast wearing away? To put it differently: How long can the United
States and Europe work together without being friends?
11 Completely Absurd Reasons To Love Washington
Yes, Washington is breathtakingly beautiful… and our scenery is diverse… and our produce is second to none. That being said, when you live in the Evergreen State long enough, you start to love it for its quirks. You develop quite a sense of humor about your home, and when people ask what you adore so much about it, you can hardly contain yourself.Even if you don’t agree with these 11 reasons to love Washington, you must admit they’re valid, if not a bit silly.
Although this mythical creature has
never been proven real, there are tons of reported Bigfoot sightings in
Washington. We like to keep the mystery alive.
How many years has DMB played at
The Gorge on Labor Day weekend? 10? 20? It's hard to remember due to all
the fun (and the contact highs) of the weekend.
We really know how to keep the doctor away here.
No matter how many games the
Mariners lose in a row, we will be there. We love our Sounders, and we
love our Hawks. Don't even get us started on the Sonics.
Have you ever seen the Hoh? It's incredible.
"High" fives to Colorado, who joined us that year.
Humptulips. Tokeland. Puyallup. Nooksack. Big Bottom Valley. Need we go on?
The Space Needle was the country's
first revolving restaurant. The world's first soft-serve ice cream
machine was in a Dairy Queen in Olympia. The first Cinnabon opened in
Federal Way, and of course, there's that whole Starbucks thing.
What can we say, we love to get creative with our coffee.
Kay Longhi’s parents, Francis and Patricia Longhi, at their north-end home on Cowan Road in the 1960s. (Courtesy Photo)
Coming Home: Betty MacDonald interview drew Longhis from Chicago
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?
|
