Ma and Pa Kettle, Betty MacDonald and her family

Ma and Pa Kettle - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,

great Betty MacDonald fan club news.

You'll be able to read a new very interesting and witty letter by Betty MacDonald.

Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter April will be available on Monday.
 

If you know the two persons in our photo send us a mail, please.

You can win very new Betty MacDonald fan club items. 

Wolfgang Hampel's  'Vita Magica' was very successful. 

You'll be able to read Wolfgang Hampel's very witty experiences at Pike Place Market and other new stories and poems in next Betty MacDonald fan club letters.  

Wolfgang  Hampel's  new very well researched  stories about Betty MacDonald, Monica Sone,  Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett,  Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle are golden Betty MacDonald fan club treasures.

We adore Wolfgang Hampel's great stories, interviews and his satirical poems. 

Betty MacDonald fan club honor members Letizia Mancino and  Mr. Tigerli  had been honor guests at Vita Magica in  2015.  

You can see them again in Vita Magica in 2016.

Mr. Tigerli on his new motorbike is really great.

Europe and the World needs unique Mr. Tigerli very much because of so many very difficult problems.

Let's have a new breakfast with Brad and Nick today.  

You'll enjoy it very much.

We are going to visit Vashon Island.

Wolfgang Hampel's new Vita Magica guest reader is a very famous satirical writer - Michail Krausnick.

We hope Mr. Erdogan won't have any problems with his work. 

Be careful guys!

A wonderful Betty MacDonald fan club ESC surprise for Betty MacDonald fan club ESC fans from all over the world is waiting for you.

Send us your ESC 2016 votes, please.

12 points for 1st place and until 1 point for your 10th place.

You are not allowed to vote for your own country.

Deadline: April 30, 2016

Don't miss the chance to win two Grand Final ESC 2016 tickets.

It'll be very exciting.

Jamie-Lee with Ghost  got over 5 million views  but there are several more very hot favourites this year:

Who will be Betty MacDonald fan club ESC winner 2016? 

We are publishing our fifth Betty MacDonald fan club ESC 2016 TOP 10 in alphabetical order:

Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Latvia,  Poland,  Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.

 

Take care,

David

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 - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)

Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University 

Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel 

Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD

Betty MacDonald fan club items 

Betty MacDonald fan club items  - comments

Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I  

Betty MacDonald fan club groups 

Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund    

Linde Lund shared Rita Knobel-Ulrich's photo.

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

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“! 

How Obama and Merkel learned to love one another

By Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer

Updated 1941 GMT (0241 HKT) April 24, 2016

Story highlights

• President Barack Obama is in Germany on Sunday
• He will lend support to German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Aerzen, Germany (CNN)In a cold world, President Barack Obama has found some warmth in Germany.

For the famously reserved commander in chief, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become his closest global partner, an alliance-turned-friendship forged by mutual political interests and parallel personalities.

Obama arrived in Hanover, Germany, on Sunday to lend Merkel his backing as she faces political blowback over her stance on refugees fleeing war in Syria, a position Obama praised as a matter of moral fortitude.

"She's on the right side of history on this," Obama said alongside his German counterpart Sunday, praising Merkel for confronting some "very tough politics" in opening her country's borders to nearly a million migrants last year.

"She is giving voice, I think, to the kinds of principles that bring people together rather than divide them, and I'm very proud of her for that, and I'm proud of the German people for that," Obama said.

At the same time, Obama is hoping his strongest European friend can help sway skeptical fellow leaders to scale up their efforts to counter ISIS, particularly in implementing stronger counterterror programs to track suspected extremists. He also is looking for her support in hammering out a U.S.-European Union trade pact.

If Obama is successful in his European pursuits this week, it's because the two leaders have formed something rare for Obama: a genuine international friendship that both have leveraged to their own advantage. That rapport, analysts say, has led Germany to assume the pre-eminent role in U.S.-Europe ties previously held by France or the United Kingdom.

"You feel increasingly the center of the trans-Atlantic relationship rests in many ways on the Berlin-Washington axis a little bit more than it has in the past. And I think Obama and Merkel are responsible for that because of that tight relationship," said Julianne Smith, the director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program at the Center for a New American Security, and a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Officials say similarities in each leader's personality and disposition have led to a bond that's withstood a litany of challenges during their tenures. Early in Obama's administration, Merkel reportedly expressed doubts about the young president.

"She dislikes the atmospherics surrounding the Obama phenomenon. ... It's contrary to her whole idea of politics and how to conduct oneself in general," then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was told in an email from her confidant Sidney Blumenthal. He was citing information from a former U.S. ambassador in Germany.

Later, when it was revealed that the American National Security Agency was monitoring Merkel's cell phone, the furious response reflected Germans' worst fears of overzealous American surveillance. The situation wasn't resolved immediately; at one point, Merkel ejected the CIA station chief in Berlin after it was alleged the spy agency was recruiting German officials.

Finally, Obama's chief of staff was dispatched to the German capital to resolve the tensions, a rare overseas mediation that was effective in cooling tempers.

So too have Obama and Merkel been sharply at odds over austerity versus growth models in reviving the global economy, a disagreement that persists even though they have so far staved off a global depression.

But both are cerebral realists, each relatively cold-eyed about the challenges their countries face, and their friendship emerged from those disagreements intact.

"For me, the future with the President is much more important than the past right now," Merkel declared Sunday through an interpreter.

During last year's Group of Seven talks in Bavaria, it was apparent both had put aside any lingering resentments when Obama greeted Merkel with a hug and kisses on the cheek. The pair spent a sunny afternoon meandering through an Alpine village, sampling sausages and beer.

The chumminess was again on full display ahead of Obama's arrival in Hanover, where he'll sit for talks with Merkel on Sunday. A headline atop Obama's interview with Germany's Bild newspaper blared "Was ich an Merkel so mag!" -- "What I Really Like about Merkel!"

Obama was grinning widely when he met Merkel, embracing the German chancellor and kissing her on the cheek. Though she returned his hug, Merkel returned quickly to her familiar German sobriety, walking briskly along the grand courtyard of the Schloss Herrenhausen to survey troops.

Later, during their joint news conference, Obama was determined to spotlight Merkel's jocularity, even if it's her sober outlook he values in global affairs.

"This is as important a relationship as I've had during the course of my presidency. Chancellor Merkel has been consistent; she has been steady; she is trustworthy. She has a really good sense of humor that she doesn't show all the time at press conferences," Obama said. "That's why she's been such a long-lasting leader, because she watches what she says."

Merkel is a chemist by training, distinguishing her from the parade of career politicians whom Obama regularly faces in Europe and elsewhere. Obama's aides say the President appreciates Merkel's scientific approach to problems like Europe's persistent economic woes, Russia's continued provocations in Ukraine and counterterror efforts that haven't been popular at home.

It's that willingness to brave political fallout that's endeared Merkel to Obama over the long course of their parallel administrations. In Germany this week, Obama hopes to boost Merkel after her decision to open Germany for an inflow of refugees proved deeply unpopular among Germans.