Monday, March 7, 2016

Wolfgang Hampel, Betty MacDonald and Seattle

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

Wolfgang Hampel - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,

Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter March will be one of the most fascinating ones.

March is a very exciting month for Betty MacDonald fan club fans with several contests for example Betty MacDonald fan club birthday contest.

One of Betty MacDonald's wonderful friends celebrates birthday in March.

Tell us the name please and you might be the winner of a Betty MacDonald documentary. 

Are you going to visit Seattle's French Fest?

I'd like to meet Brad Craft and his outstanding bookstore too.

( more info below )

We already got many birthday cards.

Don't miss Betty MacDonald fan club birthday contest, please.

Betty MacDonald fan club birthday card contest is really a great idea.


The winner who sent the best and most original birthday card will be Honor guest of the next International Betty MacDonald fan club event.  


Deadline: March 15, 2016


A Betty MacDonald fan club birthday exhibit with many very special birthday cards by Betty MacDonald's family and friends.


You'll be able to see wonderful cards for Betty MacDonald with very touching messages for example by her daughter Joan MacDonald Keil or her good friend Monica Sone.  ( see info below ' Betty MacDonald and The plague and I )


There will be a Betty MacDonald fan club birthday event DVD available.


We'll have several International Betty MacDonald fan club events  in 2016.


Join us in voting for your favourite city, please. 


I'd like to vote for Seattle.  


Don't miss this video, please.


You can see brilliant Brad Craft. 


"This is Me," by Bad Kid Billy. [Official Music Video]


Seems I'm in this for a hot second.  I remember being asked to participate one day on the street in front of the bookstore where I work.  I didn't think to ask what it was for, or even so much as the name of the song or the band.  Didn't want to be late coming back from lunch.  Silly bugger.  The very nice young woman with the green hair also featured herein happens to work at Magus Books.  She mentioned she'd seen me.  Told me the name of the band, and here we are.





Wolfgang Hampel's  Vita Magica guest was a very famous TV lady, author and singer and she is our new Betty MacDonald fan club honor member.


I bet  Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli  adores our new Betty MacDonald fan club honor member. 


I've read some of Tatjana Geßler's books and I like them very much.  


We are so happy that Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back.


Let's have breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick. 


Enjoy Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island, please.


This great enty might be the next ESC  2016 winner.

Take care,


Brigitte & Martine



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 )

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 


Now in its fourth year, the French Fest at Seattle Center is a part of the Seattle Center’s FESTÁL cultural event series and attracts 5,000 visitors. The event is free and open to the public (no admittance tickets are required). French Fest draws its inspiration from the worldwide “Day of Francophonie,” organized in over 100 countries each March to celebrate the diversity of Francophone cultures and traditions around the world.
During the Seattle event, festival-goers of all ages have an opportunity to enjoy many activities – all with a “French” twist: live music, theater and dance performances, French cuisine, book sales, informative seminars and demonstrations, “best baguette” contest, games and more.
The event also features a unique Career Expo (Salon de l’Emploi) with the participation of local and international companies seeking French speakers and workshops led by employment professionals.
The event is organized by the nonprofit organization, France Education Northwest, with the support of Seattle Center FESTÁL, the French-American Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest, the Consular Agency of France in Seattle, Coca-Cola, Alaska Airlines, T-Mobile and other key supporters.


Follow our Facebook page for more info https://www.facebook.com/SeattleFrenchFest/?ref=hl

Seattle Center Festál



Seattle’s French Fest: A Celebration of French-Speaking Cultures




March 20, 2016
Armory Main Floor, Fisher Pavilion

http://fenpnw.org/french-fest/



French Fest Collage




Seattle's French Fest: A Celebration of French-Speaking Cultures
Join the community for Seattle’s 3rd Annual French Fest: A Celebration of French-Speaking Cultures on March 20, 2016 at Seattle Center Armory.
Seattle's French Fest is free, family-friendly and open to the public with the purpose of promoting and raising awareness of Francophone cultures and traditions to the residents of the Greater Seattle area. During the one-day event, festival-goers will listen to live music, watch dance performances, taste international cuisine, learn from informative seminars and cooking demonstrations, play games and enjoy a day full of fun activities en français!
Seattle's French Fest: A Celebration of French-Speaking Cultures is presented in partnership with France Education Northwest, under the auspices of the Consular Agency of France. 




French-American Chamber of Commerce
2200 Alaskan Way, Suite 490
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 443-4703
http://fenpnw.org/french-fest/


EU summit to declare Balkan migrant route closed

BRUSSELS - Agence France-Presse


A woman and a boy walk along the railway track as refugees and migrants (Rear) wait for food in a makeshift camp at the Greek Macedonian borders near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 4 , 2016. AFP Photo
EU leaders held a summit with Turkey's prime minister on March 7 in order to back closing the Balkans migrant route and urge Ankara to accept deportations of large numbers of economic migrants from overstretched Greece.

The European Union is hardening its stance in a bid to defuse the worst refugee crisis since World War II by increasingly putting the onus on Turkey and EU member Greece in return for aid.
 
The two form the main migrant gateway to Europe, with Greece the link to the western Balkans route that hundreds of thousands of migrants had taken until countries along the way began shutting their gates in a position now backed by the 28-nation bloc.
 
Tens of thousands of migrants desperate to reach wealthy Germany and Scandinavia are now trapped in debt-wracked Greece.
 
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said his country was ready to work "shoulder to shoulder" with Europe on a deal on migration they signed in November, while also raising Ankara's long-stalled EU membership bid.
 
"Turkey is ready to work with EU. Turkey is ready to be member of EU as well," he said as he arrived in Brussels.
 
Davutoğlu said March 6 he would discuss with his EU counterparts efforts to start within weeks building schools and hospitals for refugees with the three billion euros ($3.3 billion) pledged by Europe under the November deal.
 
European leaders kept a pragmatic silence over the Turkish government's forcible takeover last week of the Zaman media group for having links to U.S. based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen - a former ally now consider the head of a "terrorist organization" aiming to topple the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
         
Summit co-host the Netherlands said the bloc would not only push Turkey to stop the flow to Europe of all non-Syrian migrants but also eventually war-hit Syrians themselves.
 
"It's very important for Turkey to first take back all non-Syrian refugees but that's not enough," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
 
"In the end, we want zero also for the flow of Syrian refugees."  

A draft of the summit conclusions, which was approved by EU ambassadors on Sunday and obtained by AFP, says: "Irregular flows of migrants along the western Balkans route are coming to an end. This route is now closed."  

The Balkans route became flooded after German Chancellor Angela Merkel last summer opened the doors to Syrian refugees -- Germany has now taken one million -- but with her popularity slumping she has since brought down the shutters.    

Brussels on March 4 unveiled a plan to restore by the end of the year the full functioning of Europe's cherished passport-free Schengen zone after the series of border closures.    

It was timed with calls for not only better cooperation from Turkey -- currently home to 2.7 million Syrian refugees -- but also the creation of an EU coastguard force by the summer and help for Greece to strengthen its external border.
 
EU leaders are set to stand by Greece after having last week promised 700 million euros in emergency aid.
 
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras -- who has said he will not allow his country to become a "warehouse of souls" -- renewed calls March 7 for fellow EU members to honor a deal to relocate thousands of refugees.
 
"These  agreements that we do not implement are not agreements at all. So now there is a difficult situation that we have to handle," he said.
 
The bloc adopted a scheme last September to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy, but fewer than 700 people have actually been moved.
         
Donald Tusk, the EU president and summit host, said in his invitation letter that success depended largely on securing Turkey's agreement for the "large-scale" deportation from Greece of economic migrants who do not qualify as refugees.
 
Syrians, who top the influx of 1.13 million people into Europe over the past 14 months, are considered genuine refugees requiring admission under international law.
 
Despite progress in implementing the November deal with Turkey, the EU said, too many people were still heading from Turkey to Greece, with nearly 2,000 arriving daily in February.
 
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said meanwhile the alliance was broadening its new mission in the Aegean Sea to stop migrant smugglers while working more closely with the EU border agency Frontex.    

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced March 6 that the Royal Navy was sending vessels to join ships from Canada, Germany, Greece and Turkey already deployed.
 
Just ahead of the Brussels meeting at least 25 migrants, including 10 children, perished after their wooden boat capsized trying to reach Greece.
 
The International Organization for Migration said before Sunday's deaths that a total of 418 people had died or gone missing already in 2016, most while attempting to reach Greece from Turkey aboard unseaworthy boats.



March/07/2016