Showing posts with label Betty MacDonald and the Kettles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Betty MacDonald and the Kettles. Show all posts

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Betty MacDonald and the Kettles

































Betty MacDonald in the living room at Vashon on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.


Betty MacDonald fan club fans,


Wolfgang Hampel's Ma and Pa Kettle biography is much funnier than a Ma and Pa Kettle movie. 



When Betty MacDonald's sister Alison Bard Burnett talkes about her experiences with the Kettles even my mother-in-law is laughing. 

This is very surprising because she laughs very seldom. 


We don't have neighbours like the Kettles. Our neighbours are like Mr. and Mrs. Hicks.

They have no children. We have a boy and two girls. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks are cutting down everything in the garden. Ours looks like a paradise or a green hell with many trees and branches. Mr. Hicks always says to us: If you need help I'll cut everything down for you but we refuse so far. We have two dogs. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks don't like dogs or cats because Mrs. Hicks is very allergic. By the way we won't ever have any chickens although is seems that our children bring a new pet home every day. I know what they are talking about when they say: Mother, we have a surprise! You won't believe it! ( I do! )

Mrs. Hicks is cleaning the house night and day and is called ' our newspaper' because she knows everything about the people in our community.
You know I thought it was a very witty idea to lend our Mrs. Hicks Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I which she wasn't aware of. After she read Betty MacDonald's book she said smiling: It was very funny but I dislike this awful Mrs. Hicks. She obviously doesn't understand the meaning of life. I couldn't say anything and looked at her with an open mouth. Mrs. Hicks gave me a strange look and said: Darling, is everything ok with you? You look terrible this morning!

I want to share a very special Betty MacDonald family story. My grandmother wrote letters to Betty MacDonald, Mary and Sydney Bard because she loved Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard's books. She was very fond after she got delightful letters written by Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard and even from mother Sydney Bard. I'll write a Betty MacDonald Fan Club Article about it.

My girls and I like like Betty MacDonald's Nancy and Plum, The Egg and I, Anybody can do anything and Onions in the Stew. My hubby as he has the same profession as Mary Bard's husband Dr. Clyde Jensen prefers Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I and Mary Bard's The doctor wears three faces. Our boy likes the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Stories. He always says: I don't behave like the boys and girls in the books and don't need a Piggle-Wiggle cure. I'm not sure. Not at all!

We can't wait to read Gwen Grant's books. We are very fond of Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter. Monica Sone, who is Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, is our favourite person in Betty MacDonald's books.

We would like to visit the state of Washington, Seattle, Laurelhurst and Vashon Island and attend one of Darsie Beck's workshops.

Congratulations! Betty MacDonald Fan Club has the most interesting and fascinating Betty MacDonald Honour members. 


Thank you, guys! I'm one of you!

Gracia 



Don't miss this very special book, please.



Vita Magica  

Betty MacDonald fan club

Betty MacDonald forum  

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) 

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I 

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )

Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )

Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )

Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University 

Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel 

Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD

Betty MacDonald fan club items 

Betty MacDonald fan club items  - comments

Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I  

Betty MacDonald fan club groups 


Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund  

Rita Knobel Ulrich - Islam in Germany - a very interesting ZDF  ( 2nd German Television ) documentary with English subtitles  


Thomas Bödigheimer I know, i am there

Linde Lund replied · 1 Reply

Betty MacDonald Fan Club proudly presents:

The amazing, very witty, charming, intelligent story written by our brilliant Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honor Member - artist and writer Letizia Mancino.

WHEN YOU DREAM, DREAM BIG

Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
Translated by D. Tsiaprakas

Betty, I love you! Your books „Anybody can do anything“ and „Onions in the Stew“ are really outstanding! I take them into my hand, and at a stone's throw I am right away in America ! Columbus and the egg: The great discovery!

Your bestseller „The Egg and I“ the greatest discovery. And you and I! I know America: It's true what you are writing: That's America: Absolutely right! No, even to the least detail! The landscape and the passion: Do you know the country where pistols blossom? Brava, Betty, you are describing the Americans vividly, genuinely, insufferably, brushed upon paper. If I like to read your works? To read doesn't even express it! I can even hear and see everything: Nature, culture, subculture.

America has almost remained unchanged! O those cool Americans! Calculating, stockmarket, Wall Street, the financial crisis (even back in 1930), the gamblers, the bankruptcy of companies! The swarming of dodgers and cheaters. People left without money. Dispair und hunger! A terrible „Worst Case“ (when I knew but little English I thought it is sausage with cheese).

Still how impressive is the ability to adaptone self of the Americans: They know how to enjoy life, acrobats of survival! In the twinkle of an eye they achieved to adapt themselves and effect the work of pioneers: In the morning you are a cleaningwoman, in the evening a brothel woman! No problem!

„The insufficient, here it's becoming an event; The indescribable, here it's done;“ Mary Bard Jensen, your sister, was the treasure trove of procuring work: My word, what a power woman with unlimited imagination! She has recommended you everywhere: Betty can do everything, also write novels! Go ahead, sister, hurry up! The editor wants to see your manuscripts! Up to that point you had not written a single line! Wow! And if still everything goes wrong? No problem: When you dream, dream big!

Just look, you have become famous.The Egg and I You know that, Betty? I'll slip into „The Egg and I“ and come and be your guest! I want to get to know your chickens. I hate chickens! I'm a chickens slave from North America! O Betty, without these damned animals, no chance of you becoming famous! „The Egg and I“ you would never have written! How many readers you have made happy!

Your book is so amusing! Your witty fine (almost nasty) remarks about your family members and roundabout neighbours made me laugh so much! You have been born into a special family: Comfort was not desired: I can't but be amazed: What did your father say to your mother? After tomorrow I am going to work elsewhere: Thousands of miles away...He sent her a telegram: LEAVING FOR TWO YEARS ON THURSDAY FOR MEXICO CITY STOP GET READY IF YOU WANT TO COME ALONG – That was on Monday. Mother wired back: SHALL BE READY, and so she was.That's America! Improvisation, change, adventure. You show no weakness: Let's go! Your descriptions, Betty, about the tremendous happenings in nature have deeply frightened me.

Continent America, I'm terrified by you! I feel so small and threatened like a tiny fly before an enormous flyswatter! Your novel is very many-sided! The reader may use it even as a cook book! „The Egg and I“ starts straight away with a recipe: „Next to the wisdom that lamb meat doesn't taste good unless it has been roasted with garlic“. Do you enjoy the American food?

O Betty, it's too fatty for me and I hate garlic! (Betty is presently cooking lunch for Bob. She's continually talking to „STOVE“: STOVE is Bob's rival; in the beginning I thought it was being himself). She turns round and says: Well, so no garlic for you. No lamb either, Betty. I don't eat any meat! I'd actually prefer only fried eggs. Betty, let me make them myself. Then you try it!

Blow! „STOVE“ out of order! I don't succeed in turning it on! Damned! It's got more of a mind of its own than „STOVE“ of my friend, Hilde Domin! Bob's coming! He must eat directly! „Men eat anything, the swines! Says your grandmother Gammy“. Is it true? Do you like my chickens? Bob asked me without introducing himself. Yes, Bob (rude) I love them! I'm vegetarian. Do you want to clean the henhouse with me tomorrow? A, you're always getting up so early at four o'clock! Bob, that's not a job for me! He looked at me disdainfully! A Roman cissy! You need a reeducation at once! Help, Bob's attacking me! I rather change the novel immediately and move to the „Island“! 


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Betty MacDonald and the Kettles
























Betty MacDonald in the living room at Vashon on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.


Dear Betty MacDonald Fan Club,

I enjoyed Wolfgang Hampel's books, interviews and stories so much.

I have never had any neighbors like the Kettles: thank God.

I found ONIONS IN THE STEW completely by accident when I was in junior high school (about 1960). I saw the book in the autobiography section, and thought it was a cookbook that had been misfiled. I removed it from the shelf to inspect it and, while glancing through it, became so interested in the book's contents that I checked it out immediately. 

As soon as I finished  ONIONS IN THE STEW, I found Betty's other books and read them as well. 

I was so disappointed that she wrote so few books. . .

I think ANYBODY CAN DO ANYTHING is probably my favorite.

What I liked most about Betty's books is her honest assessments of her life experiences and the humor she shows through adversity.

I can' t wait to read more.

Love,


Kathleen


Betty MacDonald loved in Germany

Axel Schappei The Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber June 16, 1983

Go into any ordinary German bookstore and ask for former Islander, Betty MacDonald's paperbacks and you'll be handed - at least - three books: Die Insel und ich ( Onions in the Stew ), Das Ei und ich ( The egg and I ) Betty kann alles (Anybody can do anything).


Scholars in the Pegasus German courses on the Island may notice that the German titles of Betty MacDonald's famous autobiographical novels have been translated appropriatley.
Betty would like them. Betty MacDonald, who lived on Vashon Island, is tremendously popular in Germany. She once was one of the most well known and widely read novelists in the United States. But would you guess that more than two million paperbacks and hard-cover books of Betty MacDonald have been published and sold in Germany during the last 30 years? 

Her bestseller The Egg and I reached about half a million in July 1981. From March 1964 until October 1980, 107000 copies of Anybody can do anything were sold in 12 editions. Onions in the Stew - her novel about living on the Rock - sold 103000 copies from May 1964 until September 1980, also in 12 editions. "She is incredibly successful, really, not only her novels. Her books for children like Nancy and Plum or the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle-Stories still belong to the most successful childrens' books after all those years," says Wolfgang Hampel, who is so convinced about Betty MacDonald. 

He simply loves Betty MacDonald and her books: "She's so homorous, her stories about everyday-life's and awkward situations are just incomparable. It's like a good friend taking you be the hand and leading through her life." 

That's why Wolfgang Hampel and four other German Betty Fans plan to launch an extensive exhibition about Betty MacDonald, her life and her work.

Originally they wanted to open the exhibit on February 7, 1983, 25th anniversary of Betty MacDonald's death. But the five friends didn't manage to get enough exhibits together. "We're still looking for pictures, photographs, letters - in short all sorts of personal mementoes about Betty. Our exhibition has been planned for the last few years and we have written zillions of letters and bought hundreds of books, here in Germany, Europe and from the States," explains Wolfgang Hampel.They tried to get further information about their preferred author from American publishing companies. "Some didn't answer and others know less than we did already! It was like finding the different pieces of a jigsaw-puzzle without knowing what it will look like in the end." 

Why all this activity?"We think that Betty MacDonald is such a fascinating person that many people here should know more about her . Apart from our endeavors to our exhibition together we've also been in contact with publishers to convince them that a new edition of Nancy and Plum would find its readers still today.

Betty MacDonald's readers come from all ages and social groups," says Wolfgang Hampel. Of course he and his friends know that Vashon is the Onions in the Stew Island and they also know that Vashon is part of the Pacific Northwest and - more specifically - of Puget Sound. So imagine their amusement when some publishing firms told them that Vashon is somewhere up to Alaska. 

Actually, Wolfgang Hampel knows quiete a lot about the Rock, though he's never been here. All his information comes from Betty MacDonald's Onions in the Stew. So he's got the idea of the terrific view of Mount Rainier, and he also knows about her coyness.

Wolfgang Hampel has a pretty good impression about the house where Betty lived with her folks. "What we dearly need for our exhibition are pictures of the Island, books all sort of visuals to show people here in what a beautiful scenery Betty lived. So people can understand that she simply had to write books like that in such a fascinating rural enviroment.

Wolfgang would be grateful for any help he could get from the Island. "Really, the most substantial help came from Vashon so far. We got some great personal impressions about Betty from Islanders who knew her."Wolfgang is amazed about the friendliness and amount of help and encouragement that reached him from the Rock. Still it's a long way until the exhibition is ready. 

Anyone with anything they'd like to send for the planned exhibition can write to Wolfgang Hampel. 


Don't miss this very special book, please.


Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald fan club

Betty MacDonald forum  

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) 


Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I 

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )


Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )

Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )

Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University 

Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel 

Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD

Betty MacDonald fan club items 

Betty MacDonald fan club items  - comments

Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I  

Betty MacDonald fan club groups 

Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund 
 






 
Rita Knobel Ulrich - Islam in Germany - a very interesting ZDF  ( 2nd German Television ) documentary with English subtitles


The situation in Germany and Sweden with many refugees is 

rather difficult. 




Politics | Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:37am EDT

Trump predicts riots if denied Republican presidential nomination



The New York billionaire scored big wins in primaries in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina on Tuesday which brought him closer to the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination.
But he lost the crucial state of Ohio and left the door open for those in the party trying to stop Trump from becoming the Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election.
Trump might fall short of the majority required, enabling the party establishment to put forward another name at the July convention in Cleveland to formally pick its candidate.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Trump said if he got a large number of delegates yet was denied the nomination: "I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots. I'm representing many, many millions of people."

Party leaders are appalled at the real estate developer and reality TV personality's incendiary rhetoric and believe his policy positions are out of step with core Republican sentiment, such as his vow to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, temporarily ban Muslims from the United States and build a wall along the border with Mexico.
Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show on Wednesday that he mostly consults himself on foreign policy issues. "I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain," he said. "I know what I'm doing ... my primary consultant is myself, and I have a good instinct for this stuff."
He also told Fox News he would not attend the next televised Republican presidential debate, scheduled for March 21. "I think we've had enough debates," Trump said.
The Republican establishment's bid to stop him may have come too late as a field of candidates that once included Trump and 16 high-profile party figures has dwindled to only three with Trump, 69, in command ahead of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, 45, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, who won the Ohio Republican primary on Tuesday.

While the Republican race remained in turmoil, Hillary Clinton won victories in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina on Tuesday that cast doubt on U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' ability to overtake her for the Democratic Party's nomination.
Trump's landslide victory in Florida knocked rival Marco Rubio, a U.S. Senator from that state and a foreign policy hawk, out of the White House race.
Trump's closest challenger is Cruz, a Texan and favorite of the conservative Tea Party, who is second to Trump in delegates but has struggled in states where conservative evangelical voters, among Cruz's biggest supporters, are not dominant.
Kasich is the last establishment Republican candidate standing. Asked whether he would work with Cruz to block Trump's path to nomination, he told NBC's "Today" show:   
"I'm out there running to be president. I'm not out to stop Donald Trump or stop anybody else. By winning yesterday in Ohio, I've dealt him a very, very big blow to being able to have the number of delegates."
Early on Wednesday, MSNBC projected Trump and Clinton would win Missouri in very tight races. With 100 percent of the votes counted, Clinton led Sanders by about 1,500 votes and Trump led Cruz by about 1,600 votes.
It would not be the first time Trump skipped a debate if he follows through on his plan. He also sat out the Fox News/Google debate on Jan. 28, after complaining of unfair treatment in a previous Fox debate.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington,; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks about the results of the Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri primary elections during a news conference held at his Mar-A-Lago Club, in Palm Beach, Florida, March 15, 2016.
Reuters/Joe Skipper