Monday, March 31, 2025
Betty MacDonald and a very dangerous region
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
talking about Mount Rainier and Betty MacDonald fan club contest do you know that Mount Rainier Volcano is a ticking time bomb?
Betty MacDonald lived in a very beautiful but also rather dangerous region.
No place for fraidy cats!
Nevertheless I'd like to visit Washington State and very impressive Mt. Rainier.
I enjoy Betty MacDonald's very witty description of Mt. Rainier very much.
You only have to answer where to find Betty MacDonald's description and perhaps you'll be the winner of Betty MacDonald fan club contest.
Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter November contains more info on Betty MacDonald fan club contest.
Congratulations! Betty MacDonald fan club research team found the most interesting and important info for Wolfgang Hampel's oustanding new Betty MacDonald biography. I can't wait to read the very exciting Dorita Hess story.
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.
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.
I am neither Christian enough nor charitable enough to like anybody just because he is alive and breathing. I want people to interest or amuse me. I want them fascinating and witty or so dull as to be different. I want them either intellectually stimulating or wonderfully corny; perfectly charming or hundred percent stinker. I like my chosen companions to be distinguishable from the undulating masses and I don't care how. - Betty MacDonald
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
More info are coming soon.
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.
I'd like to visit Betty MacDonald's paradise on Vashon Island.
I'm a huge Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan.
Martine
Coming Home: Betty MacDonald interview drew Longhis from Chicago
Coming Home: Betty MacDonald interview drew Longhis from Chicago
By Anneli Fogt
Tuesday, December 27, 2016 11:10amNEWS
Editor’s Note: This story is the second in a series about the interesting ways current islanders came to end up on Vashon and how being on the island has changed the course of their lives.
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.”
Kay called the early 1950s the “go-go time,” as the interstate system was being built and car culture was catching on. So, a couple months after hearing the interview, the family packed up their canary, dog and belongings — Kay said her mother was a “great animal lover” — and drove the more than 2,000 cross-country miles to Washington.
“I remember crossing the border into Washington and remember standing in the back seat — those were the days where you could do that, no seat belts — and Dad stops the car in Spokane and says, ‘We’re here,’” she recalled. “I just remember thinking, ‘We came all the way for this?’ Spokane was not much to look at and didn’t quite meet the expectations I had.”
The family’s journey obviously had to go a little farther west, but ended at a motel on Seattle’s Aurora Avenue. Kay and her family stayed there a week while her father found a job. Shortly after, the Longhi family moved to West Seattle.
“A tiny house clinging to the hillside” is how Longhi recalled that first home.
She and her sister started first grade in West Seattle before the family moved to a home on Cowan Road at the north end of Vashon the following year, 1955. Her mother fell in love with the island and never looked back.
“We came to this island, which was secluded, out of the big city,” Longhi said. “We could see the mountains, as well as the sound. She would walk all over Vashon and loved being surrounded by water. She was very, very happy.”
The home was also not far from MacDonald’s, although Kay says her mother did not find that out until after she bought the home.
“I don’t know how she knew the house (Betty Macdonald’s) was close … but she was aware of it,” Kay Longhi said.
And while her mother never met MacDonald, she did meet her sister, Mary Bard.
Patricia Longhi went on to live in that same north-end home for 56 years. She moved out in 2011, three years before her death at the age of 91.
“Mother was very much a loner in her heart. She liked solitude and wanted to be in the rugged, great outdoors,” Kay Longhi said before explaining that her mother grew up in an affluent family in New York City and was expected to become a socialite.
“She abhorred the life,” Longhi said. “She loved the summers she spent on the coast of Maine. They always went to Laudholm Farm — a working farm with outbuildings that were rented out in the summer.”
It was a lifestyle similar to that of the farm that Patricia Longhi found on Vashon, and that authenticity and community is what has kept Kay Longhi here. Longhi attended college in Portland, moved to Seattle, then moved to North Carolina and Mobile, Alabama, but because her mother was here, she followed what was happening on the island and would always come visit.
“Because I was raised here, I never lacked a sense of home,” she said. “The community here has been my go-to place both mentally and physically. I’ve always been very centered. There’s a real sense of community and home I’ve never felt anywhere else.”
Longhi moved back to Seattle in 1997. By 2008, her mother was in her 80s and suffering from dementia, and Kay moved into a small cabin on her mother’s property to take of her. She was eventually moved to a memory care home in 2011 and died in 2014, but her mother’s dream of rural living in the north-end home continues to this day, as her great-grandchildren are growing up in the same house.
“My sister’s child, so my niece and her family, live there,” Longhi said. “Houses don’t come up for sale on Vashon because one generation leaves and another comes in.”
But the Vashon home is not the only lasting evidence of Patricia Longhi’s search for a more rural, authentic life. During her life on Vashon, she discovered the Washington coast, and Kay said her mother saw many similarities between it and the Maine coastline of her childhood. She and a few other island families bought land and primitive cabins in the mid-60s on a strip of coast that is now part of the Olympic National Park.
“The federal government came in and claimed eminent domain and declared it wilderness. There were two choices, either have the home torn down and take the money the government gives you, or have the government take it over when the owner dies. Mother put the home in her children’s names, so it’s still there.”
The three-story cabin has no electricity and no running water. It’s tall and skinny, perched on a cliff so her mother could see the water below her.
“For Mother, it was the ultimate solitude,” Longhi said. “It was just about where she wanted to be.”
Betty MacDonald - Nothing more to say by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel, author of global success "Satire is my favorite animal"
Betty MacDonald - Nothing more to say by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel, author of global success "Satire is my favorite animal"
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It is truly impressive that the Heidelberg satirist, composer and singer Wolfgang Hampel has reached such a wide and international readership with “Satire is my favorite animal”. The recognition of Ingrid Noll, a well-known German writer, underlines the quality and humor of the work. Wolfgang Hampel's involvement as founder of the Betty MacDonald Fan Club, the literary-musical event Vita Magica and his presence in media formats such as the SWR television show “Herzschlag-Momente” by Marc Marshall have certainly contributed to the book's great popularity. “Satire is my favorite animal” by Wolfgang Hampel has held a high ranking in the ‘Parody’ category on Amazon America for six years. This shows that it has a very loyal readership that appreciates and recommends the book. It is a testimony that good literature knows no boundaries and can reach people regardless of their native language. Such works not only provide entertainment but also promote understanding and appreciation for cultural diversity and literary art. Many ESC fans would be very happy if Wolfgang Hampel, with his great voice, represented Germany at the ESC 2025.
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Living room reading with Wolfgang Hampel
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Wolfgang Hampel, author of "Satire is my favorite animal" in the Heidelberg Authors' Directory
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Buchinfo national & international,
Eurobuch national & international,---------------- - ---
USA ,
United Kingdom,
Australia ,
Brazil ,
Canada,
Czech Republic,
France,
Germany,
Germany ,
India ,
Italy,
Hungary ,
Japan,
Japan,
Mexico,
Netherlands ,
Spain,
Sweden,
>Switzerland ,
Switzerland,
Turkey
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Wolfgang Hampel in the SWR 3 broadcast “Heartbeat moments”
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A sketch about Brexit in Vita Magica by and with Wolfgang Hampel<
Betty MacDonald: Nichts mehr zu sagen von Betty MacDonald fan club Gründer Wolfgang Hampel, Autor des Welterfolgs 'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier'
Betty MacDonald: Nichts mehr zu sagen von Betty MacDonald fan club Gründer Wolfgang Hampel, Autor des Welterfolgs 'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier'--------------
Betty MacDonald: Nichts mehr zu sagen------------
Das Buch “Satire ist mein Lieblingstier” von Wolfgang Hampel hebt sich von anderen deutschsprachigen Satirebüchern durch mehrere Besonderheiten ab: Erfolg und Anerkennung: Es ist nicht nur ein weltweit erfolgreicher Titel, sondern auch seit 6 Jahren auf der Amazon-Parodie-Bestsellerliste in Amerika, was für ein deutschsprachiges Werk sehr bemerkenswert ist. Auszeichnungen des Autors: Wolfgang Hampel ist ein preisgekrönter Autor, der den Betty MacDonald Memorial Award zweimal gewonnen hat und auch den SWR Ingrid Noll Wettbewerb für sich entscheiden konnte. Ingrid Nolls Lob: Die bekannte deutsche Schriftstellerin Ingrid Noll hat ihre große Begeisterung für das Buch ausgedrückt, was eine bedeutende Anerkennung darstellt. Verbindung zur Kultveranstaltung: Das Buch enthält satirische Gedichte und Informationen über die Veranstaltung “Vita Magica” der Akademie für Ältere in Heidelberg, die ebenfalls von Wolfgang Hampel ins Leben gerufen wurde und sich zu einer Kultveranstaltung entwickelt hat. Diese Elemente tragen dazu bei, dass “Satire ist mein Lieblingstier” sich in der Welt der deutschsprachigen Satirebücher hervorhebt und eine einzigartige Position einnimmt.
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Wohnzimmerlesung mit Wolfgang Hampel
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Wolfgang Hampel, Autor von „Satire ist mein Lieblingstier“ im Heidelberger Autoren-Verzeichnis
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Buchinfo national & international,
Eurobuch national & international,---------------- - ---
USA ,
Vereinigtes Königreich,
Australien ,
Brasilien ,
Kanada,
Tschechische Republik,
Frankreich,
Deutschland,
Deutschland ,
Indien ,
Italien,
Ungarn ,
Japan,
Japan,
Mexiko,
Niederlande ,
Spanien,
Schweden,
Schweiz ,
Schweiz ,
Türkei
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Wolfgang Hampel in der SWR 3-Sendung „Herzschlag-Momente“
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Ein Sketch zum Brexit in Vita Magica von und mit Wolfgang Hampel
Happy Birthday dear Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Happy Birthday dear Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle---------------------------------------------------------------------
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
let's celebrate Betty MacDonald's and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's birthday on March 26 th.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck is Darsie in Betty MacDonald's book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's magic.
Our first Betty MacDonald fan club honor member, late Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter - described in Betty MacDonald's book The Plague and I as very witty and intelligent Kimi - sent unique birthday greetings some years ago.
We are going to share them with you in next Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald's favourite nephew and son of Betty MacDonald's unique sister Alison Bard Burnett shares his unique childhood memories of Vashon Island on his beloved aunt's birthday.
Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents are going to celebreate a huge Betty MacDonald birthday party.
There will be a special Betty MacDonald birthday DVD available with new info on Wolfgang Hampel's updated Betty MacDonald biography and many more info and interviews.
You can see all the international book editions of Betty MacDonald and her sister Mary Bard Jensen.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team share their new outstanding research results for new updated Betty MacDonald biography and Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection.
There are several Betty MacDonald fan club contests and it seems that most Betty MacDonald fan club are able to answer the contest question regarding Betty MacDonald's favourite flower.
Don't miss the great chance to win unique Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club birthday items.
Good luck!
There are several Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fans club contests.
Send us your most beautiful photo of Betty MacDonald's favourite flowers, please.
Mats and Betty MacDonald fan club birthday team are working on a very special Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle birthday cake.
We are so grateful and happy because of having such outstanding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members.
Darsie Beck is Alison Bard Burnett' s son, Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard Jensen's nephew.
It's not a surprise at all that Darsie Beck's Auntie Betty MacDonald was crazy about him.
You only have to read Darsie Beck's childhood memories on Vashon Island, published on Betty MacDonald Fan Club blog.
What a gifted personality!
An outstanding writer and artist!
Artist and author Darsie Beck gave us the permission to share a special gift with you, his childhood memories of Vashon Island.
It's beautifully written and a real treasure.
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Childhood memories of Vashon Island 1943-53
Copyright by Darsie Beck
All rights reserved
I've always been fascinated by the ferry boats that serve the island and Olympic Peninsula communities of Puget Sound. I feel particularly fortunate to have spent my first ten years and the last thirty years here on Vashon Island and the in between years living in water front homes near the Fauntleroy ferry dock and on the north end of Mercer Island near the old ferry landing that once served that island community.
I have many fond memories of the ferry boats but one in particular remains as clear to me today as when it occurred many years ago.
At the time I was born, my parents lived with my grandparents in a small house on Judkins street just east of 23rd, a few blocks south of the Lake Washington floating bridge tunnels. This area, at the time, was the northern most end of what was called, "Garlic Gulch", the original Italian community in Seattle. With a new baby in the house things got pretty crowded and before long my parents moved to Vashon Island where they purchased their first home on the bluff above Dolphin Point on the north end of the island. My mother's sister Betty MacDonald, her husband Don and her two daughters Anne and Joan had moved to the island a couple years before prompting my parents to follow their lead to this island community.
In the 1940's as now, we reached the island by ferry boat. I can't tell you what that first ferry ride was like in the fall of 1943 or which boat we rode on but I do know, the boats were privately operated by Puget Sound Navigation (PSN), doing business as the Black Ball Line.
Black Ball provided service between Vashon Island, Harper (on the Olympic Peninsula) and Fauntleroy (West Seattle). During the 1940's the wooden ferries Vashon and Kehloken and the steel electric Quinault saw regular service on this run. The Quinault carried 100 cars compared to the 45 car capacity of the smaller wooden ferries and was considered a super ferry at the time. Most of the ferries flying the Black Ball burgee were former San Francisco Bay boats purchased by PSN after the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.
In early 1948, a proposed rate increase by PSN resulted in Vashon Island suspending its service contract with Black Ball. Undeterred by Vashon's action, Black Ball continued service between Harper and Fauntleroy and to Vashon on an "as needed only" basis. With the help of sympathetic state and local government agencies Vashon began developing its own ferry service utilizing former Lake Washington and Tacoma boats out of service since the opening of the Lake Washington floating bridge and the Tacoma Narrows bridge. The Lincoln, Washington, City of Tacoma and Crosline became the backbone of the new fleet.
My first ferry boat recollection is from the summer of 1948. I was five years old, my mother was pregnant with my sister, and we were sitting in the family car on the Vashon ferry dock on a very foggy July morning waiting for the boat to Fauntleroy to take my mother to the hospital.
The fog had created a stillness over the dock broken every few minutes by the sounding of fog horns and the occasional car driving on and off the wood planked ferry dock. Soon I heard the sound of an approaching ferry, its engines reversing, its prop wash splashing noisily between the pilings, the shrill screech of the ferries wood side rails rubbing against creosote dolphins and apron wing walls as the boat nudged itself into the slip. Chains clattered as deck hands removed car barriers in preparation of off loading. I don't remember which of the old ferries landed at the Vashon dock that foggy morning but I do remember, once our car was loaded onto the boat, sitting on the car deck, looking out the port into the fog when suddenly out of the mist a large ferry appeared. Its propellers furiously reversing, deck hands and passengers on both boats bracing for an impending collision. My eyes grew big and my body grew tense as the huge ferry cleared the fog revealing her black hull, white superstructure and the black ball painted near the top of her red stack. It was the Quinault, Puget Sound's first super ferry heading directly for our boat. The prop wash of the huge ferry was buffeting the side of our boat, causing it to rock back and forth in its slip. The Quinault was now within a car's length of our boat when its forward motion finally came to rest and her reversing action began to move the boat out of harms way. As stealthy as she had appeared, she now disappeared back into the fog sending a collective and audible sigh of relief through passengers and crew of both boats.
The Quinault, now considered a medium sized boat compared to today's super ferries, still ply's the waters of Puget Sound and still holds a place in my childhood memories as the most enormous boat ever seen by a five year old.
Wolfgang Hampel, Betty MacDonald, Monica Sone
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
a new fascinating Betty MacDonald biography by Wolfgang Hampel, bestselling author of ' Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ' ( Satire is my favorite animal ) will be published in 2025.
Wolfgang Hampel was a very good friend of author Monica Sone, dexcribed by Betty MacDonald as Kimi in The Plague and I:
Monica Sone shared the most interesting info on her wonderful friend Betty MacDonald.
Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club are working on this golden treasure for many Betty MacDonald fans around the world.
Take care,
Mats
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http://bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/2020/07/readers-praise-satire-ist-mein.html
Why are funny books so important?
Take me, I'm a very optimistic personality but in these days I need some kind of support. Therefore I'm very glad and grateful I can read a very intelligent and funny book. Satire ist mein Lieblingstier (Satire is my favourite animal) by Wolfgang Hampel is a perfect example of very funny and very intelligent literature. Yes, indeed it requires lateral thinking; making unexpected connections; being one step ahead of the reader. If you are looking for a very funny and very intelligent book try brilliant Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favorite animal ) by Wolfgang Hampel.
You'll enjoy it as much as I do and many, many delighted readers around the world.
Take care,
Martine Didier
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Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
we wish you a very happy Tuesday with one of the funniest books ever written.
Send us your thoughts regarding humour, please. We are going to include the best essays in our next Betty MacDonald fan club newsletters. You might be one of our Betty MacDonald fan club surprise winners. Good luck!
Why do I think that Satire is my favourite animal by Wolfgang Hampel is such a popular book? I guess the reason why is it's so witty and intelligent. Yes, it's true. You can read Satire is my favourite animal over and over again the same way I do and it won't bore you. To me this happens very, very seldom.
Very witty Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) by Wolfgang Hampel the best recipe for bad mood and depression - especially important in times like we have now.
Please don't miss Satire ist mein Lieblingstier by Heidelberg author Wolfgang Hampel ( Satire is my favourite animal ) one of the funniest books ever written according to many readers around the world.
(UK, USA, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries)
Very successful writers are going to introduce their fascinating books at Vita Magica January - June 2021. You are very welcome! Vita Magica setzt ihr Programm auch 2021 fort. Im ersten Halbjahr werden großartige neue Autoren ihre sehr erfolgreichen Bücher vorstellen. Vita Magica will continue with fascinating new authors and their very interesting books at Vita Magica January - June 2021. A fascinating new Vita Magica program. Wir brauchen jetzt sehr witzige und heitere Bücher!!!
Golden laughter is very important - especially now!!!!
Das wunderbare Buch ' Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ' ( Satire is my favourite animal ) von Wolfgang Hampel ist ein brilliantes Feuerwerk der besten Pointen mit sehr geistreicher, witziger und hintergründiger Unterhaltung!!!!!
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Wolfgang-Hampel/dp/3958281559
Wenn Sie ein sehr humorvolles Buch lesen wollen, dann verpassen Sie bitte nicht 'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ' von Wolfgang Hampel.
Das sehr witzige Buch 'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier' ( Satire is my favourite animal ) von Wolfgang Hampel lieben vieler Leser auf der ganzen Welt!!!!( USA, UK, Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz und vielen anderen Ländern )
Wolfgang Hampel, author of very witty Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) and Vita Magica Team support culturual institutions with special events and book sales of Satire ist mein Lieblingstier. This very witty book is according to many readers from all over the world one of the funniest books ever written.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Wolfgang-Hampel/dp/3958281559
Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) by Wolfgang Hampel is like golden sunshine in very grey November.
Please don't miss very witty Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ). It's one of the funniest books ever written according to many readers around the world. It brings lots of fun and joy to many readers around the world. Many of them including me take this best medicine for bad mood every day.
Betty MacDonald fan club - and Vita Magica founder, Wolfgang Hampel from Heidelberg, author of very witty Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) is working on a new Betty MacDonald biography.
'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ' by Wolfgang Hampel is very successful in USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can read Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) by Wolfgang Hampel over and over again and it won't be boring. Don't miss it, please.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of very witty Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) and Vita Magica Team support culturual institutions with special events and book sales of Satire ist mein Lieblingstier. This very witty book is according to many readers from all over the world one of the funniest books ever written.
https://www.amazon.com/Satire-ist-mein-Lieblingstier-Satirische/dp/3958281559
Happy Tuesday, Greta
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Issue 5
2002
Betty MacDonald is best known for her book The Egg and I (a bestseller when it was published in 1945, it was made into a movie starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurry) and her children's books, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series. The Egg and I is the story of a city girl who, at the age of 18, marries a chicken farmer -- from "that delightful old school of husbands who lift up the mattresses to see if the little woman has dusted the springs" -- and settles down with him to raise children and poultry -- and conceives an almost pathological hatred of chickens.
Published in 1945, The Egg and I is a classic of the wisecracking, disgruntled dame variety -- but it isn't hard to see that beneath that veneer, the book voiced real complaints about women's lot in marriage and a tough streak of anti-romantic realism. (It also contributed to the image of Seattle and its environs as a realm of backwoods eccentrics -- a far cry from the current stereotype of grunge rockers and latte-drinking drones for Microsoft.)
The Plague and I (1948), MacDonald's subsequent -- and largely ignored -- autobiographical follow-up, concerns the year she spent in a tuberculosis sanitarium. In it, she brings the same grim humor to the story of her institutionalization and the dehumanizing treatment she experiences there.
-- Anne Finger
The Plague and I
by Betty MacDonald
On October thirtieth, a month and two days after I had entered The Pines, a nurse appeared in our doorway at the beginning of rest hours and ordered me to get ready for a ride in a wheelchair. I asked her where I was going but she said only, "Shhhhh!" and left. There was probably some excellent reason for it, but the practise of coming for patients in wheelchairs and not telling them where they were going, or what was to be done to them, always seemed cruel and senseless to me. A wheelchair brought to your bed could mean the dentist, surgery, light treatments, examinations, X-ray, fluoroscope, the movies, a lecture, dismissal, moving to another hospital, a death in the family, any number of things, generally unpleasant but never as unpleasant as the not knowing, the speeding down corridors with racing pulse and rocks in your stomach.
I knew that a wheelchair during rest hours usually meant the treatment room. The treatment room for me! My hands quivered like springs as I tried to tie my robe. I sat weakly on the edge of the bed and phrases from the lesson on surgery swooped around my head in a horrifying circle like bats. "Phrenicectomy, thoracoplasty, bilateral pneumothorax, collapse of both lungs. My heart pounded and my hand grew wet and clammy as I waited.
Kimi [MacDonald's roommate] tried to comfort me. Her cheeks scarlet with excitement and apprehension, she said, "At least you know that anaesthetics have been discovered and whatever they do to you will be painless." I said, "Yes, but just the fact that they are going to do something to me must mean that I'm not getting well. Remember the lesson: 'There are cases that do not improve with rest, fresh air, and good food.'" We could hear the creak of the approaching wheelchair. Kimi said, "Breathe deeply quickly with both lungs. It may be for the last time."
The nurse came in, I fumbled my way into the wheelchair like a trembly old lady, we rolled down the hall past the Charge Nurse's office, through large, double swinging doors and into the treatment room, where I was delivered wheelchair and all to the treatment room nurse, a Miss Welsh. Miss Welsh looked cheerful and proved both understanding and kind for she told me at once that I was to have artificial pneumothorax. She said, "For heaven's sake stop looking so scared, there's nothing to it."
The treatment room, a very large old-fashioned operating room, was divided into sections by white sheets hung on rods. Miss Welsh whispered that all new patients were started on pneumothorax by the Medical Director; that he was behind the curtains and was very irritable when operating. Indicating by rolled up eyes and a finger on her closed lips that I was to be absolutely quiet, or else, she disappeared behind the curtain.
The treatment room had windows to the ceiling, pure white walls and strong overhead lights and I sat in my wheelchair, absolutely quiet but blinking and squinting in the strong light and feeling like a mole that had suddenly burrowed out into the sunshine.
There were two other patients waiting. One was the blonde with the gold tooth, who had brought washwater on my first morning at the sanatorium. She wore the same maroon sweater and was tatting something shrimp pink. She smiled but said nothing.
The other patient was a young man with thick straight dark hair, very sunken brown eyes and feverish red cheeks. His navy blue flannel robe had a blob of egg on the lapel and I could tell that he was a very new patient because his fingers were still brown with cigarette stains. He showed not a glimmer of interest in me, the blonde or his surroundings, but stared morbidly at a large black framed motto which read, "It's good to have money and the things money can buy -- but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you have some of the things money can't buy." "Like tuberculosis," I thought bitterly.
I was getting very sick of mottos and maxims and beautiful thoughts and as the minutes slogged by and there was no human sound from behind the white curtains, only occasional metallic clicks or the gushing sound of a faucet, I grew more and more apprehensive. "What were they doing behind there? Had something gone wrong? Why didn't somebody say something!"
I moved my wheelchair back a little but this only brought me face to face with another motto, "Worry, the interest paid by those who borrow trouble." I felt just like Eileen [another patient] and wanted to shout rudely, "What knothead thought that up?" Just then the curtains parted and out came Little Miss Teacup Cavities of my first trip to the bathroom. She said goodbye to the Medical Director and Miss Welsh and was retrieved by a nurse from our ward who curtly took possession of my wheelchair.
Miss Welsh indicated that the feverish boy was next and that I was to sit down on a bench beside Gold Tooth. I was so scared I was practically in a coma. Pneumothorax! Collapse of the lung! I was sure that I would suffocate. I remembered with disconcerting vividness the time, when I was twelve years old, I had tried to crawl between the crossed supports of a diving platform and had become firmly wedged. I drew air into my lungs in great gulps as I recalled the horrible smothering sensation and the long breathless terrible minutes it took Cleve to free me.
I derived small comfort from the fact that everyone had told me that there was no sensation, no pain, to pneumothorax. Hadn't everyone told me that having a baby was just like a little case of indigestion? Indigestion maybe, but the kind you'd get from swallowing a cement mixer. I could now see the wall that had been behind me and it framed another motto. "Let thy speech be better than silence or be silent." Obviously somebody's mother had been scared by Bartlett's Quotations. I resolved to burn my copy the minute I got home.
The thin blonde began to cough, first, however, neatly laying down her tatting shuttle and covering her mouth with a paper handkerchief. When she had finished she put the used handkerchief into an envelope of heavy waxed paper, put the envelope into her sweater pocket, then picked up her shuttle again. I could feel a cough bubbling in my chest. I swallowed hard and concentrated on "a cough can be controlled" for in my hysteria I had forgotten my waxed paper envelope and clean paper handkerchiefs. It was very warm in the treatment room and as I controlled my cough I could feel my face turning a dark unhealthy red. A nurse opened the outside door and looked in at us. Apparently neither the blonde nor I was what she wanted, for after looking at my red face suspiciously for a minute or two, she shut the door again.
I grew fascinated with the blonde's tatting shuttle. It darted in and out of the shrimp pink like a dragonfly in a hollyhock. The pink thing was square and lacy and seemed to be some kind of a yoke. I had seen many such yokes displayed at county fairs and could easily picture it completed, its virulent color clutching the top of a too-short white cotton petticoat, cut on the bias and sucked in at the knees.
Miss Welsh finally emerged again from behind the white curtains and motioned to me. My heart gave a wild leap of fear but I got up and marched resolutely over to her. Whatever it was, I was willing to face it, to get it over. She helped me off with my robe and the tops of my pajamas and up onto an operating table. She told me to lie on my back with my left arm above my head, then painted the entire upper left half of me with mercurochrome.
The Medical Director was washing his hands over in the corner, his back to us. When he had finished washing the nurse handed him a pair of rubber gloves, which he put on without speaking. Then he poked me experimentally in the ribs, looked at my x-rays, examined my case history and said, "Yell if you want to but don't flinch!"
I felt the prick of the hypodermic needle, just under my left breast, then an odd sensation as though he were trying to push me off the table, then a crunchy feeling and a stab of pain. "There now," the Medical Director said, as he attached the end of what looked like a steel knitting needle to a small rubber hose connected to two gallon fruit jars partially filled with a clear amber fluid. The nurse put one jar higher than the other and I waited frantically for my breathing to stop and suffocation to start. There was no sensation of any kind for a few minutes then I had a pulling, tight feeling up around my neck and shoulder. The doctor said, "I guess that's enough for today," took the needle out, slapped a bandage on me and I got down from the table, dizzy with relief.
Climbing back into bed, I had a terrific, overwhelming desire for a cigarette. A cup of hot coffee and a cigarette. Laughing so that she would know it was just a little joke, I told the nurse but she looked disapproving and brought me two aspirin and some lukewarm water.
By suppertime I had sharp knifelike pains in my chest and had spit up a little blood. I excitedly reported these symptoms to the Charge Nurse and she immediately put my bed down flat and said that 1 was not to walk to the bathroom and was to eat all my meals lying down for three days. She then explained calmly that the pains were adhesions tearing loose, the blood was probably from my nose, that I was most fortunate to be able to take pneumothorax. She said the only reason I hadn't had pneumothorax as soon as I entered was because of the shadow on my right lung. She said that this shadow had cleared and I was a very lucky young woman.
Lying on my back, spilling tea and little slimy pieces of canned pear down my neck, it was difficult for me to see eye to eye with the Charge Nurse, especially as I had felt perfectly well without a single pain of any kind before I got so terribly lucky and was given pneumothorax. The maxim on my tray was: "I would rather be able to appreciate some things I cannot have than to have things I cannot appreciate."
From then on until I left The Pines, like all the great clan of "gas" patients, I was given a jigger of "gas medicine," a brackish-tasting liquid, before every meal.
For three days and nights, each time I moved I had severe tearing pains in my left lung. I took aspirin and tried to concentrate on feeling fortunate but succeeded only in feeling very tubercular.
Friday morning, just after temperatures and pulses, a strange man stopped at our door, read my name from a list he was holding, told me to put on my robe and slippers, helped me into a wheelchair and started toward the elevators. "Now what?" I asked myself, my fear-addled brain trying to recall the various forms of surgery used if pneumothorax was not successful.
When the elevator door had clanged shut, the man said, "Ever been to fluoroscope before?" I said no, and he said, "You'll like it. You can talk and you'll see people from all over the hospital." My sigh of relief almost collapsed my other lung.
Before we had rounded the second bend of the tunnel leading to x-ray, we heard what sounded like the chirping and twittering of thousands of nesting birds. "Fluoroscope patients," the x-ray man explained. The noise was almost deafening as we rounded the last bend and came on about eighty patients, both men and women, but carefully sorted according to sex, sitting on benches along the walls of the tunnel and waiting to be fluoroscoped.
The x-ray man pushed my wheelchair to the door of the laboratory and callously left me facing the benches and the eighty strangers, who immediately stopped talking and unabashedly looked me over. Feeling like a pimply blind date and very conscious of my gray lips and uncombed hair, I lowered my eyes and examined the fingernails on my shaking left hand.
When the talking at last began again, I was sure much of it was about me but I was able to raise my eyes and observe. Most of the patients were young, in their teens and early twenties, and appeared robust and very healthy. The female patients from the Ambulant Hospital wore makeup and hair curled and arranged in slightly out-of-date fashions. The degree of out-of-dateness varied with the length of time the patient had been at The Pines and what had been in vogue when she entered. Most of the women were doing some form of fancywork and knitting needles, tatting shuttles, crochet hooks and embroidery needles flicked and darted as they talked.
The men just sat. This made them appear sadder and sicker than the women. All the patients were dressed in bathrobes or housecoats. The women's were floor length and bright colored. Coral, turquoise, pale green, bright red, electric blue, lavender, yellow, and of course magenta. The men's robes were short and drab. Dusty dark blue, maroon, earthy brown and gray. The men were combed and clean shaven and actually as fat, pink cheeked and bright eyed as the women, but they didn't make the same effort to look healthy and happy. They sat in dejected attitudes looking as unemployed and beaten as possible, and coughing and spitting constantly. It made me wonder if any occupational therapy other than spitting was provided for male bedrest patients.
From past experience with sick males, I knew that no form of occupational therapy, including how to make your own diamonds, would get a very enthusiastic reception, as a man's natural reaction to illness of any kind seems to be to see how big a stinker he can be and how much resistance he can muster against all forms of treatment. However, even the novelty of being a stinker must wear off after the first year, and it seemed to me that there should be something for those large idle hands to do. Something to bring a smile to those sad dejected faces, to lessen the tedium of tuberculosis.
I was wondering what that something could be, when the door of the x-ray lab opened and Miss Welsh winked at me, jerked my wheelchair into pitch darkness, took off my robe and the tops to my pajamas and put a sheet around my shoulders. When my eyes had become accustomed to the dark, I saw that there were several doctors sitting facing the fluoroscope with their backs to me.
A door to the right of the fluoroscope opened and a girl came in, closing the door quickly behind her. She sat down in front of the fluoroscope, slipping the sheet from her shoulders as she did so. There was a buzzing noise and I could see her ribs and lungs. They looked just fine to me but the technician ran his finger over the plate on her right lung and the doctors grunted unintelligible things to each other. They told her to raise and lower her arm.
When she left it was my turn. The technician asked me my name, the House Doctor found my card, the technician ran his finger over the plate on my left side, I was told to raise and lower my arm, the doctors grunted unintelligible things to each other and it was over. Miss Welsh pushed me out into the hall again and over to the bench on the women's side, where they crowded over to make room for me.
The woman next to me was embroidering "When you come to the end of a perfect day" in bright orange yarn on a maroon velvet pillow. just behind the word "come" she had already embroidered half of a large orange with spikes protruding from it. This puzzled me a good deal until she turned the pillow around and I realized that the prickly half-orange represented a sun setting behind a maroon horizon.
The Perfect Day woman was talking to a girl, who had a big heap of loose curls on top of her head and winked every time she spoke. She was crocheting something in ecru string. Perfect Day said, "I was talking to Bill, Thursday, and he said that the Charge Nurse wouldn't send Mervin to the dentist because he was going to die anyhow and the Institution don't want to waste their materials fixin' his teeth." Heap O'Curls winked and said, "And I've heard that the poor kids in the four-bed ward up in Bedrest are starving and the Charge Nurse just laughs when they ask for seconds." Perfect Day said, "It's a wonder to me that anybody gets out of here alive."
The girl on my other side was making a rag doll. It was supposed to be one of those long-legged French bed dolls but there had evidently been no pattern for the girl had made the body as long and thin as the legs and arms. The result looked like a squid. A tough delinquent squid with its face all pulled down on one side and bright orange hair exploding from its peaked head. The girl was attaching an arm and as she sewed she told her neighbor on the other side about a hemorrhage she had had at dinner before coming to The Pines. "A cup full of blood!" she finished triumphantly and I wondered where and how she had measured it.
All the conversations were about operations, hemorrhages, ambulant patients who were to be sent back to Bedrest and bedrest patients who were to come to the Ambulant Hospital. I said to Perfect Day, "My, everyone certainly looks healthy!" She said, squinting as she threaded more orange yarn into her needle, "Don't let it fool you, honey, those red cheeks are t.b. flushes and only show germ activity."
Rag Doll leaned across me and said, "Hazel, I had a chest exam yesterday and if it's o.k. I'll get six hours and my clothes. Mama said she'd buy me a whole new outfit." Perfect Day said, "God, honey, I'm prayin' for you but I wouldn't count on it. Henry Welter had a chest exam last week and they sent him back to Bedrest this morning." The Rag Doll girl said, "Really! Oh, the poor kid!" They both sewed in silence for a minute or two in honor of poor Henry's memory.
A very attractive blue-eyed, dark-haired girl motioned to me. As she was sitting about ten people down the bench from me, in order to talk to her I had to lean forward. This almost got me Perfect Day's needle in my eyeball, so the dark girl moved up next to me. She said, "My name's Sheila Flannigan and my brother Red went to college with your sister Mary." I said, "Why I remember Red, but how did you know I was out here?" She said, "Molly Hastings told me." Sheila also told me that she had been at The Pines three months, had time up and was at the opposite end of Bedrest in a room with a former schoolmate of my sister Alison. I began to think that my sister Mary was right and that "practically everybody has tuberculosis."
Catching my eye over the Perfect Day pillow, Sheila said, "That, my dear, is occupational therapy. 'There's a little bit of the artist in each of us,' " she said, quoting someone in a high squeaky voice. Looking at the maroon pillow I thought, "But what a tiny little speck in some people," and then the x-ray man came for me with the wheelchair.
As I climbed into bed, I realized with surprise that the unaccustomed noise and confusion had been tiring and it was nice to return to the peace of our cold little cubicle. Kimi wanted to hear about everything and during the turmoil of returning patients to their beds, I managed to tell her most of what had happened. When I finished she said plaintively, "You know, Betty, it seems to me that the institution is making a greater effort to save you than to save me." I laughed, which immediately drew a disapproving nurse to the doorway, for fluoroscope was over and the ward was again so quiet that a whisper sounded like a steam jet in full release.
On November twelfth, Kimi and I had a long bitter letter from Eileen. She had been moved into a room by herself. She said that she had thought that rooming with Minna was as low as you could get. Her exact words were, "Jesus, honey, it was, like livin' under a stone with a grub but now I'm still under the stone but all alone." She said that the reason for the move was: "Gramma brought old Mrs. Walladay out with her last Sunday and Mrs. Walladay yelled so loud the nurses told her three times to be quiet and finally the Old Dame came down, and raised hell and Gramma said, 'Ain't you ashamed, a big strong woman like you makin' fun of a poor old deaf lady!' Jesus, kids, I almost choked." So apparently had the Charge Nurse for she moved Eileen by herself. I felt very sorry for Eileen but didn't realize the extent of my sympathy until I was moved by myself on November fifteenth.
It all happened so quickly I didn't even have a chance to say good-bye to Kimi. I opened my eyes after rest hours and the next I knew I was in a cubicle- by myself at the opposite end of the building. A few minutes later Kimi was wheeled past my door and a pathetic note from her that night informed me that she had been put in a room with the Japanese girl with no character. She said, "If not speaking will heal my lung I should be out of here within the week." The note ended, "Why did the Charge Nurse separate us? How could she perform such an act of cruelty?"
That's what I wanted to know so I asked her. She said, "It is better for the patients to move every so often. To adjust to different personalities. It is better for you to be by yourself." I loathed being by myself. It was dull and depressing and I found it impossible to adjust to my own personality.
My new little room was very comfortable with a window opening on a huge porch beside the bed, a radiator within easy reach, so that I could thaw out my feet occasionally in the early morning, and a delightful view of the Children's Hospital, the waters of the Sound and many trees. It was the first time since entering the hospital that I had been able to look out of a window and I found watching the writhing trees, the angry gray water and the driving rain very exhilarating for a day or two. Then I began to miss Kimi. I missed her gentle voice, her understanding and her acid tongue. Being alone made the whole day seem like the rest hours and I soon lost my feeling of high spirits and exuberant. good health, and spent much of my time longing for the children and thinking about death.
There were six or seven beds on the porch and the patients in these beds were very quiet, almost immobile. It was undoubtedly because of the cold that they lay so very still under covers pulled high and tucked in, only their faces showing above the white spreads but to my morbid eye they seemed very sick, probably dying. At night when I lay wide awake, cold, lonely and sad, the beds looked like rows of white biers, and the patients' faces gleamed greenish white and dead in the pale reflected lights from the Administration Building.
Before coming to The Pines, death, if I thought of it at all, which was seldom, was something swift, awe inspiring, cataclysmic, dramatic and grand. Death was a lightning bolt, a flood, a fire, a hurricane, a train wreck, an airplane crash, a pistol shot, a leap from a high bridge.
When I had told this to Kimi one evening she had said, "Oh, that is not at all my idea of Death. To me Death is a lecherous, sly, deranged old man. His beard is sparse and stained. His eye are coarse lidded, red rimmed, furtive and evil. His loose red lip are slimy and drooling. He pants with anticipation. His partially opened mouth shows brown shaggy thread of tooth. He shuffles up and down the corridor at night, his malodorous, black robe dragging behind him."
I was horrified and told Kimi that she was morbid. She had said, "I cannot help it. Each time Margaretta or any other very sick patient passes our door I fancy I see Death's evil face peering around the corner. I think I see his black robe swirl through the doorway ahead of the wheelchair. I can see him hovering like a great bat over the emergency ward, the light room, the private room. I can hear him shuffling up and down the corridor at night." (He must have done his shuffling in the very early evening for Kimi closed her eyes on the stroke of nine-thirty and did not open them again until the washwater was delivered.)
Now that I was alone and had long sleepless hours to think, to listen and to observe, I thought Kimi's idea of death much more realistic than mine and I too began to see his evil peering face, to hear him shuffling up and down the corridors in the night. I'd awaken when the night nurse made rounds at about one or half past, and when the friendly yellow eye of her flashlight had darted off the ceiling and the soft pad of her retreating footsteps had been absorbed by the dark, I'd lie waiting. Stiff with dread. Then it would start. From far down the hall a cough -- dry and rattling like seed pods in the wind. Then another nearer -- gurgling and strangling and leaving the cougher gasping for breath. Then from across the hall a harsh deep cough with a strange metallic ring. Then the girl in the private room, the girl with skin the color of old snow, the girl with arms and legs like knobby sticks, whose voice was gone, would begin to gasp dreadfully. Involuntarily I'd try to help her until my tongue felt swollen, my throat ached, my lungs seemed crushed. "Hurry, hurry," I wanted to scream, because over it all I could hear the slow, sure shuffle of Death. Up and down the halls he went, never hurrying, knowing that we'd wait for him.
One morning the Charge Nurse said, "The night nurse reports that you do not sleep well, Mrs. Bard. Is something troubling you?" I said no, not any one thing. She said, "What kind of thoughts do you have before going to sleep?" I said with mistaken honesty, "I long for my children and I think about death." She said with horror, "Death! Why Mrs. Bard, how awful!" Then quickly recovering and jerking herself down so that not a speck of revealing human being showed, she said, "We do not allow patients of The Pines to think about death, or other unpleasant things. You must have pleasant cheerful thoughts." I said, "But I can't have cheerful thoughts when I'm by myself. I hate to be alone." She said, "It is better for you to be alone. You must have cheerful thoughts or I will report you to the Medical Director." I wrote to Kimi that night and told her that the institution was now controlling my thoughts. She replied, "If only they could. I look at my roommate and think of murder twenty-four hour a day."
From then on, while by myself, I spent the days trying to line up cheerful thoughts to mull over during the night. As I lay quietly assembling cheer, the two women in the next cubicle compared ailments. One of them had a liver that was crowding her tonsils; the other a uterus hanging by a thread. One had an ingrown toenail; the other a loose crown on her tooth. One of them belched and the other had pains because she didn't. One's sinus was so clogged she could not get any breath, the other had an empty tunnel from one ear to the other through which cold air whooshed, giving her earaches and other discomforts. One had fluid on her lung which had to be aspirated, the other was taking pneumothorax. They were each sure they were being given the wrong treatment and the wrong medicines.
One of the women had a sweet motherly voice and talked about her organs as though they were little friends. "Old Mr. Gall Bladder acting up this morning" she would say right after breakfast, or "All my little intestines are crowded today, I don't think they liked the salad we had last night." I could picture Old Mr. Gall Bladder pounding on her liver with his cane and all her little intestines with bibs on crowded around the table not liking the salad.
The other woman's insides were all little machines that didn't function. She was sure that if the Charge Nurse would only give her something to stir up her bile, the bile would start the wheels in her liver, the wheels in her liver would start the pistons in her stomach, the pistons in her stomach would generate enough juice to run her intestines, which would in gratitude wind around her uterus and keep it from dropping on the floor.
The thing that amazed me was how either of the women had ever gotten tuberculosis, because according to their conversation, for years and years before coming to The Pines, they had spent every day but Sunday in various doctors' offices and had grown so familiar with all germs that they should have recognized the tubercle bacilli and swatted them like gnats.
I was surprised the first time I saw Friendly Organs' visitors. I had thought of course that like her they would be dreary operation talkers and symptom discussers. But they weren't. They were hard bright women with lustreless dyed black hair, black sealskin coats, bright pink rouge, felt hats with vizors like policemen's hats, and big patent-leather purses. Their talk, loud and cheerful and punctuated with claps of laughter, was entirely about poker parties, drinking beer and people named Chet, Murphy and Vera. When they left, the air around Friendly Organs swirled with the musky scent of tuberoses and gardenias and the air around me swirled with pictures of the visitors at home in their one-room downtown apartments, drinking beer, opening cans of beans and being pinched on the behind by Chet or Murphy.
On the days when the poker players didn't visit Friendly Organs, a small man dressed in black came and stood stiffly, like an exclamation point, at the foot of her bed for the two hours. I guessed that he was her husband but could not picture him fitting in with Chet, Vera and Murphy.
The woman with the Little Machine intestines had a husband and son who came every visiting day. They were as pale as oysters, dressed alike in brown belted overcoats, tan fedora hats, and yellow pigskin gloves, and looked like burglars. I was amazed therefore, on a day when my visitors were late and there was a sudden little block of quiet, to hear the older burglar say in a gentle, tender voice, "What did you have for dinner today, Sarah, honey?" Sarah said, "They had cabbage again and I'm all bloated up." Son said, "Gosh, Ma, you know you can't eat cabbage. It always talks back to you." The older burglar said, "Have they done any thing for your sinus, honey?" Honey lowered her chin on her chest, belched, patted her stomach, looked at her husband accusingly and said, "See! Cabbage! It's just poison to me."
Every morning the Friendly Organs woman would tell the Charge Nurse that she needed a "good cleaning out," or something for her ingrown toenail. The Little Machine woman would ask for something to stimulate her "nasal drip." When the Charge Nurse came to me she dared me to complain about anything and I didn't dare. I was cold and lonely and hated tuberculosis but I had cheerful thoughts, By God. "And how are you this evening?" the Charge Nurse would ask, her eyes steely and forbidding. "Just splendid," I'd answer dutifully reciting my catechism. "Simply splendid."
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"Satire is my favorite animal" by Wolfgang Hampel is very successful internationally
"Satire is my favorite animal" by Wolfgang Hampel is very successful internationally. Many readers around the world appreciate the humor and brilliant punch lines of the book. Critics and readers are of the opinion that 'Satire is my favorite animal' is one of the most humorous books of all time.
The famous crime writer Ingrid Noll is also a big fan and is always happy about humorous masterpieces by Wolfgang Hampel.😊
The Heidelberg singer, parodist, satirist, Betty MacDonald fan club - and Vita Magica founder Wolfgang Hampel has an impressive connection to the famous authors Betty MacDonald and Ingrid Noll. He is a two-time Betty MacDonald Memorial Award winner, which recognizes his work on Betty MacDonald and outstanding contributions to literature. He has also won the SWR Ingrid Noll competition, which further underlines his skills as an author. In October 2024 he founded the political cabaret group 'Die Heidelberger Satireschotterer'.
Wolfgang Hampel is also very active in Heidelberg's literary scene and regularly takes part in events. He appears on radio and television - including with Ingrid Noll and in the SWR TV show "Herzschlagmomente" with his wife Angelika and Marc Marshall.
His diverse activities and awards make him an important personality in the literary world.
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Living room reading with Wolfgang Hampel
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Wolfgang Hampel, author of "Satire is my favorite animal" in the Heidelberg Authors' Directory
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Wolfgang Hampel in the SWR 3 broadcast “Heartbeat moments”
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A sketch about Brexit in Vita Magica by and with Wolfgang Hampel
Naturverbundenheit: Die 90-jährige "Waldfrau" Britta | Zwischen Spessart und Karwendel | BR
Naturverbundenheit: Die 90-jährige "Waldfrau" Britta | Zwischen Spessart und Karwendel | BR
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In diesem Video geht es um eine besondere Frau, die 90-jährige Waldfrau Britta.
Würdet ihr gerne im Freien schlafen? Jede Nacht, egal ob es stürmt oder friert? Britta von Boguslawski ist damit schon 90 Jahre alt geworden. Im bayerischen Oberland lebt sie in einem kleinen Haus mitten im Wald - zusammen mit ihrem Dackel und im Einklang mit den Tieren des Waldes. Von Freunden und Bekannten wird sie deshalb die "Waldfrau" genannt.
Autorin: Angelika Vogel
This video is about a special woman, 90-year-old Britta the Forest Woman.
Would you like to sleep outdoors? Every night, no matter whether it's stormy or freezing? Britta von Boguslawski has already turned 90. She lives in a small house in the middle of the forest in the Bavarian Oberland region – together with her dachshund and in harmony with the forest animals. Friends and acquaintances therefore call her the "Forest Woman."
Author: Angelika Vogel
Betty MacDonald and Wolfgang Hampel: A Literary Friendship
Betty MacDonald and Wolfgang Hampel: A Literary Friendship
Betty MacDonald was a famous American author who wrote humorous memoirs and children’s books in the mid-20th century. She is best known for her book The Egg and I, which recounts her experiences as a young wife on a chicken farm in Washington state. The book was a huge success and inspired several movies and a popular TV series. Betty MacDonald also wrote three other memoirs: The Plague and I, about her battle with tuberculosis; Anybody Can Do Anything, about her struggles during the Great Depression; and Onions in the Stew, about her life on Vashon Island with her second husband and two daughters. She also created the beloved character of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a magical lady who helps children overcome their bad habits and manners.
Wolfgang Hampel is a German author who writes satirical essays and biographical stories. He is best known for his book Satire ist mein Lieblingstier (Satire is my favorite animal), which collects his witty and provocative pieces on various topics, such as politics, culture, religion, and society. Wolfgang Hampel also wrote several books about Betty MacDonald, whom he admired greatly. He interviewed many of her family members and friends, and uncovered new facts and insights about her life and work. He also founded the Betty MacDonald Fan Club, which has thousands of members from all over the world who share their love and appreciation for the author.
Betty MacDonald and Wolfgang Hampel never met in person, but they have a strong connection through their writings. Wolfgang Hampel discovered Betty MacDonald’s books when he was a teenager, and he was immediately captivated by her humor, honesty, and courage. He felt that she was a kindred spirit who understood him and inspired him. He decided to dedicate his life to spreading her legacy and keeping her memory alive. He wrote to her publishers, relatives, and fans, and collected rare materials and documents related to her. He also visited the places where she lived and worked, and felt a deep connection with her spirit.
Betty MacDonald died in 1958, but she left behind a rich and lasting legacy that touched many people’s lives. Wolfgang Hampel is one of them, and he became her most devoted fan and friend. He wrote to her in his mind, telling her about his thoughts, feelings, and experiences. He imagined that she would reply to him with her witty and wise words, encouraging him to follow his dreams and passions. He felt that she was always with him, guiding him and supporting him.
Betty MacDonald and Wolfgang Hampel are two authors who live in different times and places, but they share a common bond through their love of writing and humor. They are both gifted storytellers who make people laugh and think with their words. They are both literary legends with unique books that continue to entertain and enlighten readers of all ages.
This is the story of Betty MacDonald and Wolfgang Hampel: a literary friendship that transcended time and space.
"In transition to an oligarchy": Joschka Fischer warns of the erosion of US democracy
"In transition to an oligarchy": Joschka Fischer warns of the erosion of US democracy
Tagesspiegel
7 hours • 2 minutes read
Joschka Fischer sees democracy in the US in danger. The former German Foreign Minister calls for a strong Europe to assert itself against Trump and Putin.
Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister, speaks about international politics at Lit.Cologne.
For former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the US is no longer a fully-fledged democracy.
"It is still a democracy, but a borderline democracy, that is, a democracy in transition to an oligarchy," the 76-year-old Green Party politician told the German Press Agency in Cologne. He wondered why the Americans didn't realize that they had begun a process of self-destruction.
Fischer said that observing this process was extremely painful. It was literally tearing at his core. "I was born in 1948, which means it's my world that's currently collapsing," said the former Vice Chancellor of the red-green coalition from 1998 to 2005.
Despite all justified criticism, the US has always been the core of the West, "the guarantor of the democratic idea," the oldest democracy.
Macron and Starmer commit "self-deception"
Fischer said he was "delighted" that he was no longer an active politician and had to negotiate with Donald Trump. However, he was convinced that flattery would not get him anywhere with the US president.
Politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had recently been demonstratively friendly toward Trump and had sometimes showered him with compliments. "I consider that self-deception," Fischer said.
"Trump is no idiot. He knows exactly what he's doing. And he also knows if someone is subtly trying to sell him something." Trump must be confronted with confidence. "Trump thinks in terms of power and ego," Fischer said.
"Flattering him only applies to ego categories. That won't work. We Europeans must become a power. A military power. I never thought I'd say that publicly," Fischer said. But the fact is, you can only impress people like Trump or Russian President Vladimir Putin with strength.
Fischer calls for European rearmament
The urgently needed rearmament must become a European, not a national, project, Fischer warned. "We have no prospects as Germany, as France, as Poland. We are too small for that. Only together will we achieve something."
For this to succeed, the EU member states must once again prioritize European integration, which has recently been sorely neglected. "Putin and Trump leave us no alternative," Fischer said.
Germany plays a crucial role in this. He therefore hopes that the CDU/CSU-SPD federal government—should it come into being—will be successful, even if he didn't vote for it. He says this in the interest of Germany, in the interest of Europe: "There is no alternative."
Security risk: Trump wants to cut down historic magnolia tree in front of the White House
Astrid Lund - Betty MacDonald fan club organizer: "This should be prevented at all costs! I'm afraid that one day Donald will have the White House torn down. He's capable of anything!!!!!!"-------------------------------------
AFP
Security risk: Trump wants to cut down historic magnolia tree in front of the White House
AFP • 41 million • 1 minute read
End of historic Jackson Magnolia in front of the White House: US President Trump has announced that he will have one of the most famous trees in the US cut down for security reasons. The nearly 200-year-old tree must be removed for security reasons, he explained.
End of historic Jackson Magnolia in front of the White House: US President Donald Trump has announced that he will have one of the most famous trees in the US cut down for security reasons. "The bad news is that this all has to come to an end," Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social on Sunday. The tree known as the Jackson Magnolia on the south side of the White House is "in terrible condition."
There is "a very dangerous security risk, especially at the entrance to the White House," Trump continued. Therefore, the nearly 200-year-old tree "must be removed now."
Trump added that the historic magnolia will be replaced with "another, very beautiful tree." However, its wood will be preserved and can thus be used for other "noble purposes."
The striking tree has dominated the view of the south side of the White House for almost 200 years. Experts have spent years working hard to save the ailing magnolia, which has outlasted several U.S. presidents.
According to tradition, it was planted by then-U.S. President Andrew Jackson in memory of his wife, who died shortly before her husband's inauguration in 1829. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the magnolia tree is the oldest tree on the White House grounds.
FOCUS 1 - Germany and Canada join forces at the Hanover Trade Fair
>Reuters
FOCUS 1 - Germany and Canada join forces at the Hanover Trade Fair
Andreas Rinke • 6 hours • 3 minutes read
Hanover, March 30 (Reuters) - Germany and Canada demonstrated solidarity at the opening of the Hanover Trade Fair in the face of ongoing threats from the United States and promoted free trade. "Canada is not just anyone's federal state. Canada is a proud, independent nation," the SPD politician said Sunday evening at the opening of the trade fair in Hanover. "We knew we valued each other. But now we know we need each other," said Stéphane Dion, Canada's Special Representative for the European Union and Europe. Dion, who is ambassador to France and previously worked in Germany, represented the new Canadian Prime Minister Matt Carney, who is currently campaigning.
US President Donald Trump's repeated threats, including against allies, have overshadowed relations with Washington for weeks. Trump has laid claim to Canada and Greenland, which belongs to EU and NATO partner Denmark, and imposed punitive import tariffs on the US's northern neighbor, Canada, as well as the EU and other states. In Canada, this has led to harsh sanctions against the US. The EU has announced that it will also respond with countermeasures.
"We stand by your side," the Chancellor added pointedly in English to the ambassador. Canada has friends all over the world – and especially many of them here in Germany and Europe. Scholz pointed out that it is very unusual for neighbors, allies, and G7 partners to have to emphasize their desire for independence. Prime Minister Mark Carney, he said, was forced to reassure the US even before taking office that Canada would "never, in any form, be a part of the US." "These are statements that also concern us here in Europe," the Chancellor added.
Research Minister Cem Özdemir (Green Party) also criticized Trump's repeated statements in Hanover that Canada should become the 51st state of the USA. "Canada is an independent country where the people of Canada decide what happens with their future, but no one else, please," he said.
CLOSER ECONOMIC RELATIONS PLANNED
Scholz pointed out that Trump's tariff policy is damaging everyone, including the USA itself. The EU will respond to the tariffs, but must conclude more and more rapid free trade agreements with other partners around the world. "That is the right response at this time," Scholz said. Germany has already ratified the EU free trade agreement with this year's guest country, Canada. "We hope that it will soon be finally ratified by all (EU) states," he added. "Since the CETA-EU agreement with Canada came into force in 2017 alone, trade in goods between us has increased by more than 50 percent. And I'm sure it will continue to rise soon – I call it the 'Hanover Effect,'" Scholz said. Canada is represented by 220 companies at the world's largest industrial trade fair, with a total of 4,000 exhibitors – according to Ambassador Dion, the largest trade fair presence the country has ever had. He described his homeland as "the most European non-European country," with a wealth of resources and many high-tech companies. The Chancellor also described the economies of both countries as ideal partners and quoted former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that Canada has all the raw materials that Russia also has – but is a democracy and a constitutional state.
REFRESHED CRITICISM OF THE PUNITIVE TARIFFS
Scholz renewed his criticism of the punitive tariffs imposed by the US, for example, on imported cars. "We know that free world trade, which has created so much prosperity, is at risk because political movements of protectionism are becoming fashionable all over the world," said the SPD politician. This leads to only losers. The position of the German government and the EU is: "We will continue to advocate for fair world trade." This is particularly important for the USA. "Therefore, it is also clear that we as the European Union will react to the United States' tariff policy," warned Scholz. At the same time, the EU is committed "at all times and at all times" to a compromise of cooperation. "Cooperation, clarity, and strength are needed here simultaneously," said the Chancellor. The EU is open, but not naive.
Elon Musk: Collaboration Ends - Tech Billionaire Wants to Divorce Trump
Elon Musk: Collaboration Ends - Tech Billionaire Wants to Divorce Trump
Article by fka/sfx/news.de • 19 hours • 2 minutes reading time
It's an announcement that no one could have expected. After Donald Trump founded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) specifically for tech billionaire Elon Musk, Musk is now said to be planning to ditch the US president. This is currently being reported by the British news portal "Daily Star," among others.
Elon Musk Wants to Divorce Donald Trump
Elon Musk's job at DOGE is to help Donald Trump cut government spending and reduce bureaucracy. But this work appears to be coming to an end after just a few months, which is why the Tesla CEO apparently wants to leave Washington, D.C. A date for the end of the collaboration has even been set.
Elon Musk Announces Date for End of Collaboration with Donald Trump
In a recent interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Elon Musk stated that he expects the DOGE's work to be completed in approximately 130 days. This is also the timeframe set before the work began.
"Scalpel, Not Hatchet" - Donald Trump Expects Sensitivity in DOGE's Work
The Daily Star report also features Anthony Armstrong, a DOGE employee of Elon Musk. He explained that Donald Trump had given precise instructions for the agency's work. Instead of making cuts with a hatchet, they should work carefully with a scalpel. Therefore, once decisions are made about who to lay off or where to make cuts, the "emphasis is on being generous, caring, and compassionate, and treating everyone with dignity and respect," Armstrong said.
Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration has repeatedly sparked controversy since his appointment. Recently, the Tesla CEO even attended a cabinet meeting, despite not holding an official position. Tesla, in turn, suffered significant losses. The company's stock plummeted, and there were attacks and demonstrations at Tesla dealerships across the US.
Iran threatens Trump with retaliation
VOL.AT - Vorarlberg Online
Iran threatens Trump with retaliation
16 hours • 2 minutes reading time
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened the United States on Monday with a severe blow if US President Donald Trump carried out his bombing threat. On Sunday, Trump threatened Iran with bombings and punitive tariffs if the government in Tehran failed to reach an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. "If they don't reach an agreement, there will be bombs," Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC.
"But there's a possibility that if they don't make a deal, I'll impose secondary tariffs, like I did four years ago," he added. Trump made the remarks after his Iranian counterpart rejected direct negotiations with the US government. However, Tehran has expressed openness to indirect negotiations.
The US and Israel's hostility toward Iran has always existed, Khamenei said on Monday. "They are threatening us with an attack, which we consider unlikely. But if they do something bad, they will certainly face a severe retaliation."
Aggressive mood between Tehran and Washington escalates
Earlier this month, Trump threatened Iran with military consequences in a letter to Khamenei if there was no new nuclear agreement. "There are two ways to deal with Iran: militarily or make a deal," Trump wrote at the time.
Iran, in turn, threatened the US with attacks on its military bases in the region if the US government carried out its own threat and attacked the Islamic Republic. "If the Americans attack the sanctity of Iran, the entire region will explode like a spark in an ammunition depot," Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said late last week. "Their bases and those of their allies will not be safe."
Tehran Denies Building Nuclear Weapons
Western states have accused Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons for years. Tehran denies this. However, the country has increased its production of enriched uranium in recent years. Iran's stockpiles of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity – close to the weapons-grade quality of around 90 percent – have skyrocketed, as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced at the end of February.
During his first term in office, US President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Vienna nuclear agreement in 2018, which stipulates restrictions on the nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Since then, Tehran has also failed to comply with the conditions.
As a result of the international sanctions, Iran is mired in the worst economic crisis in its history. According to observers, only direct negotiations between the oil-rich country and the Trump administration could lead to a lifting of sanctions and thus defuse the crisis. Tehran is also in political trouble. His Middle East policy has been shaken by the weakening of the self-proclaimed "Axis of Resistance" against arch-enemy Israel.
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Iran droht Trump mit Gegenschlag
VOL.AT - Vorarlberg Online
Iran droht Trump mit Gegenschlag
16 Std. • 2 Minuten Lesezeit
Der oberste Führer des Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hat am Montag den USA mit einem schweren Schlag gedroht, sollte US-Präsident Donald Trump seine Bombendrohung wahr machen. Trump hatte am Sonntag dem Iran Bombenangriffe und Strafzölle angedroht, falls sich die Regierung in Teheran nicht mit Washington über sein Atomprogramm einigen sollte. "Wenn sie keine Einigung erzielen, wird es Bomben geben", sagte Trump in einem Telefoninterview mit dem Sender NBC.
"Aber es besteht die Möglichkeit, dass ich, wenn sie keinen Deal machen, Sekundärzölle verhängen werde, wie ich es vor vier Jahren getan habe", fügte er hinzu. Trump äußerte sich, nachdem sein iranischer Amtskollege direkte Verhandlungen mit der US-Regierung abgelehnt hatte. Für indirekte Verhandlungen zeigte sich Teheran aber offen.
Die Feindseligkeiten der USA und Israels gegenüber dem Iran habe es schon immer gegeben, sagte Khamenei am Montag. "Sie drohen uns mit einem Angriff, was wir für unwahrscheinlich halten. Aber wenn sie etwas Böses anstellen, werden sie mit Sicherheit einen heftigen Gegenschlag erhalten."
Aggressive Stimmung Teheran-Washington schaukelt sich hoch
Trump hatte bereits Anfang des Monats in einem Brief an Khamenei dem Iran militärische Konsequenzen angedroht, sollte es kein neues Atomabkommen geben. "Es gibt zwei Möglichkeiten, mit dem Iran umzugehen: militärisch oder man schließt einen Deal ab", schrieb Trump damals.
Der Iran wiederum drohte den USA mit Angriffen auf ihre Militärstützpunkte in der Region, sollte die US-Regierung ihre eigene Drohung wahr machen und die Islamische Republik attackieren. "Wenn die Amerikaner die Heiligkeit des Iran angreifen, wird die gesamte Region explodieren wie ein Funke in einem Munitionslager", hatte Parlamentspräsident Mohammad Qalibaf Ende vergangener Woche gesagt. "Ihre Stützpunkte und die ihrer Verbündeten werden nicht sicher sein."
Teheran bestreitet Bau von Atomwaffen
Die westlichen Staaten werfen dem Iran seit Jahren vor, den Bau von Atomwaffen anzustreben. Teheran bestreitet dies. Jedoch hat das Land in den vergangenen Jahren seine Produktion von angereichertem Uran verstärkt. Die Vorräte des Iran an auf bis zu 60 Prozent Reinheit angereichertem Uran - also nahe der waffentauglichen Qualität von etwa 90 Prozent - sind sprunghaft angestiegen, wie die Internationale Atomenergie-Agentur (IAEA) Ende Februar mitteilte.
In seiner ersten Amtszeit war US-Präsident Trump 2018 einseitig aus dem Wiener Atomabkommen ausgestiegen, das eine Einschränkung des Nuklearprogramms für eine Aufhebung internationaler Sanktionen vorsieht. Seither hält sich auch Teheran nicht mehr an die Auflagen.
Infolge der internationalen Sanktionen steckt der Iran in der schlimmsten Wirtschaftskrise seiner Geschichte. Laut Beobachtern könnten nur direkte Verhandlungen des eigentlich ölreichen Staates mit der Trump-Administration zu einer Aufhebung von Sanktionen führen und dementsprechend auch die Krise entschärfen. Auch politisch ist Teheran in Schwierigkeiten. Seine Nahost-Politik ist mit der Schwächung der selbst ernannten "Achse des Widerstands" gegen Erzfeind Israel ins Wanken gekommen.
Tuberculosis in the Russian Army: Soldiers at the Front Despite Being Ill
Daily Wrap
Tuberculosis in the Russian Army: Soldiers at the Front Despite Being Ill
Edyta Tomaszewska • 1 day • 2 minutes read
Tuberculosis epidemic in the Russian Army.
The Russian Army is facing a serious problem: tuberculosis is rampant among the soldiers. Instead of being treated, those affected are being sent to the front. But how did this epidemic spread?
The independent Russian service Toczka brought this case to light. According to journalists, the Burdenko Hospital in Pushkino, Moscow Region, is completely overcrowded. Most of the patients are soldiers infected with tuberculosis. Reportedly, over a thousand service members are being treated there.
The service Toczka tells of a specific case: 38-year-old Yevgeny, who has been at war since 2022 and previously suffered from tuberculosis. Initially, his superiors refused to accept him as a hospital patient. The soldier begged for an examination for three months.
The leadership didn't respond to the complaints. They said, "You're a coward, you just don't want to go on a mission," TVP Info quoted Toczka as saying.
When Yevgeny was finally diagnosed, he was sent to the Burdenko Hospital for four months.
There was overcrowding, so they introduced a strict regime. Anyone who started drinking alcohol was simply dismissed. Anyone who broke the rules showed they didn't want to be treated and was automatically sent to the front, Yevgeny reports.
Yevgeny believes that tuberculosis became rampant when prisoners from the gulags were recruited into the army. Tuberculosis is widespread in penal colonies. These prisoners mainly joined the so-called Wagner group.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has officially banned Wagner fighters from recruiting prisoners and tuberculosis patients. However, in practice, this is often ignored due to severe shortages at the front.
"Handled with kid gloves": US Republican calls on Trump to take a tougher Russia policy
n-tv
"Handled with kid gloves": US Republican calls on Trump to take a tougher Russia policy
3 hours • 2 minutes read
More than three years have passed since the start of the major Russian invasion. US President Trump is taking a stance toward Putin that is even drawing criticism within his party. A Republican is now calling on the US President to change course.
Don Bacon calls for more US support for Ukraine.
Don Bacon takes on Donald Trump. In an op-ed in the "New York Times," the Republican member of the US House of Representatives calls on the President and Congress to do more to engage with Ukraine. Trump and other Republicans have "handled Russia with kid gloves" and "shied away from denouncing Putin's clearly illegal war, even blaming Ukraine for starting it."
Bacon summarizes how the conflict simmered for years until it escalated to war. "Moscow's aggression against Ukraine dates back more than a century," explains the member of the House Armed Services Committee. The Republican enumerates what happened during Soviet times and how the situation hasn't improved significantly even with the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1994, Russia, among others, agreed to recognize Ukraine's borders. Twenty years later, Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula - "the West let Putin's blatant aggression go unpunished, paving the way for his full-scale invasion in February 2022."
For Bacon, it's clear: "This history makes it clear that America has a moral obligation to continue providing assistance to Ukraine until Russia commits to fair and just peace negotiations." Ukraine should be included in this process, demands the former U.S. Air Force Brigadier General.
Russian victory would have fatal consequences for the USA
If territorial concessions to Russia occur, "the USA must be prepared to provide increased security assistance and support a European-led military presence in Ukraine." Otherwise, the Republican warns, this could lead to further refugee flows, trade instability, and rising energy prices. A defeat of Ukraine would "force American consumers to spend more and slow US economic growth." The United States would "lose what makes America a great nation." It is therefore "not only morally right" to continue supporting the invaded country.
"A Russian victory in this war would have swift and predictable repercussions far beyond Ukraine's borders. Putin's statements and actions make clear that he wants to restore the old Soviet borders and reclaim the former glory of the Russian Empire." Bacon lists that, after Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and the Baltic states are on the "tyrant" Putin's wish list. At the same time, this scenario would encourage Iran, China, and North Korea to also "take aggressive measures against their neighbors."
Bacon concludes: "Finding peace will not be easy, but we must not fall into the trap of making the wrong choice. It is possible to end the war over Ukraine and maintain our moral clarity by holding Russia accountable, while advancing America's long-term national interests. This is a Ronald Reagan moment, and the stakes for all of us are too high to waver in our resolve."
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Bonin: Private households must also contribute
VOL.AT - Vorarlberg Online
Bonin: Private households must also contribute
9 hours • 2 minutes reading time
IHS head Holger Bonin wants to hold private households accountable for the restructuring of Austria's public finances.
People currently have more money at their disposal, but economic output has shrunk, he said on Sunday during ORF's "Press Hour": "We'll have to get to grips with that." Bonin also wants to see a contribution from states and municipalities, and he doesn't think an EU deficit procedure is a bad thing per se. The economist calls for "long-term goals" in climate policy.
"The state has suffered, debts have risen," Bonin said of the economic development of the past few years. The public sector has stepped in for private individuals, which is now reflected in the budget deficit. But companies also have little room for investment due to high wages. Now, households must also contribute. They are waiting for private consumption to pick up, which, he said, is also a "question of trust."
Outlook "not particularly good"
From 2026 onwards, the IHS expects moderate economic growth of around one percent annually. However, this increase is also not certain, and the medium-term outlook "not particularly good," according to Bonin: "We do have to worry." He expects "more negative surprises" from the presentation of the financial data for 2024.
"Local government deficits will probably be higher than expected," said the economist. However, what is important is how one reacts to an additional budget shortfall. Bonin described the recently reported savings requirement of around €12 billion this year as an "absolute upper limit." States and municipalities must help with savings, but financial autonomy in certain areas should also be discussed.
Sustainable measures needed
According to Bonin, an EU deficit procedure would not change anything for the time being. Either way, politicians must clearly demonstrate where things are headed. Sustainable measures are crucial.
Overall, however, Bonin wanted to remain optimistic: "I think we can do it," he said of budget consolidation. He described the mood in the new government as "constructive," and its approaches as "evidence-based."
The German economist added that he himself would prefer not to enter politics, but would rather continue to have an advisory role.
Kickl calls for a "transparency report" on asylum
The FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) viewed the budget on Sunday as being burdened primarily by the areas of asylum and migration. Party leader Herbert Kickl demanded in a press release "a monthly transparency report on total costs." Budget planning also required "comprehensive disclosure of all costs." After all, every ministry must know what it is spending on asylum. Kickl accused the government of "concealment, concealment, and cover-up."
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