Tag: Harper Collins

Posted in Books, Chocolate, Doctor Who, Food, Movies, Political, Televison, Uncategorized, Weight

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Turns 50

Posted on by D. Parker

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I’m celebrating 50,000+ views on my blog (Thank you! Thank you!) and the 50th anniversary (published 1964) of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, published 1964.

Loved with this book, then I saw the movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – my mind was forever altered.
A factory full of chocolate? It was one thing to read about it, another to see a river of chocolate…

I still love the 1971 Gene Wilder version best (directed by David L. Wolper), maybe because it’s steeped in childhood memories or because for me, it’s Gene Wilder’s definitive performance.

This is where I fell in love. Gene Wilder and chocolate. Sign me up!

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Wilder is the ultimate Willy Wonka. He didn’t go over-the-top weird, instead opting for a subtle, damaged man-child who was trapped in his own reclusion, a Howard Hughes-like creative genius who couldn’t cope in a reality that wasn’t of his own making. Wilder’s transcendent blend of cordiality, callousness, awe, and animosity make you think he is Wonka, he just is.

Jack Albertson was delightful as Grandpa Joe, who apparently couldn’t get out of bed to get a job, but could dance a jig and spend the day at a chocolate factory.

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Charlie Bucket is the only child Dahl and Wonka even remotely like due to his meek and accommodating nature, but Charlie wasn’t as obedient as he seemed, he spent money on a chocolate bar that he wasn’t supposed to; so even in the most co-operative child Dahl found a fault.
The 1971 version was renamed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to cross-promote UK’s The Willy Wonka Candy Company who had bought the rights from Roald Dahl.

I never understood why Roald Dahl was classed as a children’s author, he clearly disliked children, at times rather intensely. His stories and books reflect this.
What he hated more than children were their parents, specifically parents who didn’t raise their children properly, at least from his point of view.

Imagine what Roald Dahl would think of children and their parents now?

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The Friday Project/ Harper Collins

I recently read A Brief History of Chocolate (Steve Berry and Phil Norman) which I must warn you will not only vastly entertain and inform, but make you crave chocolate.

Despite best intentions this book lacked something, what was it? Oh yes, chocolate. They should sell each copy with a chocolate bar or coupon for a free chocolate bar. There, a marketing idea, no charge…although I’d take a thank you in chocolate bars.

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I also loved the darker, creepier Tim Burton vision of Willy Wonka.

Johnny Depp played him weird and it worked. Also damaged, but in a deranged-metrosexual-game-show-host-who-moonlights-as-a-rock-star-on-acid-way.

Veruca Salt was a bad egg or nut in all versions, but really, her parents spoiled her. Also, Augustus Gloop, Mike Teevee, and Violet Beauregarde. All annoying children, but allowed, even encouraged to be so by their parents.

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 The first time I walked into the Hershey chocolate factory in Smith Falls, Ontario the smell was divine, like melted chocolate floating through clouds of more chocolate just before it rained chocolate.

I’ll never forget the look on my son’s face, the pure wonder as he watched row after row after row of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups racing happily along the conveyor belt.

I’m sure I had a similar look as I saw the giant vat of chocolate I wanted to swim in, not figuratively, literally.

No Oompa-Loompas, no chocolate waterfall, trees made of taffy, Everlasting Gobstoppers, no fizzy lifting drinks, or Wonka though, but lots of chocolate for sale and sample.

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Alas Hershey closed the factory after 45 years, losing a great tourist attraction, and hundred of jobs. Several other large employers closed, shipping more Canadian jobs overseas, 1ww10leaving 40% of the town unemployed.

Now a flame has been lit as Smith Falls rallies; the factory at 1 Hershey Drive now produces medical marijuana, which, in a great cosmic irony would have made more people buy chocolate.

There are still times, when I open a chocolate bar wrapper and think I see a flash of gold.

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Posted in Books, Uncategorized

Overwhelmed

Posted on by D. Parker

I don’t have time.

There just isn’t enough time in the day.

Sorry, I ran out of time.

Time got away from me.

If you frequently hear or say these and other phrases, this book may be for you.

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“Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.” ~Terry Pratchett

1. Every day we hear about how people are exhausted, scattered, distracted, besieged, stressed, under pressure, anxious, just generally overwhelmed. Even school-aged children are overwhelmed.

2. Yet according to most experts including renowned time researcher and sociologist, John Robinson (known as Father Time) not having enough time is an illusion or self-imposed. Most people have more leisure time than ever before. “Time is a smokescreen. A convenient excuse” ~John Robinson. Saying you don’t have time is really saying you don’t want to do something, you just don’t want to say that.sheldon7

3. Not that many aren’t working very hard for too little. This book is quite critical of the government and business and their backward, regressive approaches to methods of work that work.

4. Your stress can affect others. They believe stress, even from parents is actually changing children neurologically and hormonally, perhaps even their DNA.

5. The part of your brain called the Amygdala has a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions. Your Prefrontal Cortex is the Big Cheese for your brain and essentially your Amygdala’s nanny. It regulates your Amygdala, tells it to slow down and take a time-out if needed. Yet your Prefrontal Cortex can shrink if chronically stressed then it’s too weak and shrunken to calm your Amygdala. So your Amygdala goes wild, it starts making poor choices.

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6. Our time expectations are out of whack. We like being pretend busy. It makes us feel important. Take time to live authentically, it takes some courage, but you might like it.

7. You hear things like, an average high school student now has the same level of stress of a psychiatric patient in the 1950s. Is it real and if so, what’s causing it? Then you start thinking, wait, then what level of stress does a psychiatric patient have now?

8. The author, award-winning staff reporter from the Washington Post, Brigid Schulte, an admitted head-on-fire time loser, interviews sociologists and scientists world-wide for this book to demonstrate how grim and prevalent this alleged time-crunch really is. Her findings are dramatic and alarming. It’s not a shock to researchers that chronic stress is raising the risk and incidence of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, obesity, Alzheimer’s, cancer, dementia, mental health issues as well as other health issues.simpsons9

9. We have time, we just don’t always use it properly. After all, according to Albert Einstein, “time is an illusion”, then again, what did he know?

10. Find uninterrupted time. Every tweet, text, email, conversation, phone call, etc. steals away uninterrupted time, not only leisure time, but work time as well. It takes us a lot more time to return to focus than we realize. Be wary when you’re sold many items that are going to improve your life. Companies don’t want to improve your life, they want to complicate it because complicated means money to them.

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“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” ~Lewis Carroll

11. Other countries including Denmark have more progressive workplaces, social structures and make far better use of their time than North Americans.

12. If there were affordable, safe, secure, and adequate housing people would have less stress, there would be less crime and therefore fewer victims of crime, more motivation, productivity, and more happy time.

13. Safe, regulated, and affordable childcare would ease our stress levels and help with time constraints.

14. We need to face facts. We like to think we’re good at multitasking, but we’re not. It’s a myth sold to us. Something suffers when people multitask and it’s stressful for your brain.

15. You probably didn’t have time to read this whole post and you won’t have time to read the book.

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