house work, learning and Willy Wonka

[dream_labyrinth]

I feel very good today.
I actually did some of the housework I talked about yesterday. I cleaned my room and the bathroom, got rid of a million spiders (except for Sammy, who has become my pet spider and has the right to live in the bathroom), put all my clean and dirty clothes away - that kind of stuff.
I also played with our neighbors' cat and her little kitty.
Yesterday, I finished another of the books I have to read to prepare for my exam. So I could start a new one today and am already reading the second chapter.
And I learned about Willy Wonka. Or at least I learned that he exists and that it is essential to know about him. My being German is an excuse for my lack of education, but not a very good one. So I'll try to find the movie or the book or anything.
The whole thing started with an entry in the libraries community - something about shnozberries. I guess all of the Americans will now go Oh, of course, shnozberries, while everybody else will probably have that same blank look on their faces as I had. But I will find out about shnozberries! I wonder how many other movies or books are essential to American kids and probably never made it to my bookshelves. If I seriously plan to emigrate to the USA, I have to find out what shapes the minds of American kids. I feel that this is necessary to understand the adults. No matter how old we are, whatever you liked to read or watch in your childhood leaves a stamp on your life. When I was a kid, I liked to read the stories by Else Ury. (Just checked the Library of Congress catalogue, no English titles listed there, maybe she never was translated.) She had this series for girls, telling the life story of a girl from age 6 or so up to being a grandmother. As it was written somewhere around WWI, it's quite different from today's children's stories. But the whole series has been reprinted in the 90s. Or actually, all but one book. That one dealt with the World War and isn't considered politically correct today, I guess.
Ironically, while Else Ury was a very patriotic German, if I remember correctly, the Nazis put her into a concentration camp. Maybe she was Jewish, I'm not sure.
Another of these books is "Der Trotzkopf" by Emmy von Rhoden (again, LoC only has the German version, no translation). That one starts with the sentence "Papa, Papa, Diana hat Junge" (dad, dad, Diana - which is a dog - has puppies). For me, this sentence always brings to mind the whole story and some memories I have connected with reading it.
So now I go and find Willy Wonka and see what that is all about.

Comments

[cleverusername2.livejournal.com]

I don't want to start any blaphemous rumors, but it seems that you listen to a lot of Depeche Mode.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, because I was too lazy to put new discs into my CD player and also because a friend had boorowed all my David Bowie CDs. But now I have them back, so it will be him most of the time from now on...