An Enormous Chocolate Factory!

Plus a small review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Two seemingly unrelated events happened this past week: the middle daughter had a birthday, and I was forced to attend a CLE. That’s continuing legal education for those of you not in the legal-know.

Most of the CLEs that I attend are in Hershey, as in Martin Hershey, as in Mr. Wonka himself. He’s such a big deal that not only does he have a chocolate factory named after him, but he has an amusement park, a school, a town, a hospital, a humongous garden, and a zoo named after him, too.

Most people know about the chocolate factory and the amusement park. But unlike Mr. Wonka, Mr. Hershey gives free chocolate factor tours, complete with a very small candy bar. I’m talking Mike Teavee, after he went into the TV, kind of small.

One of the nicer aspects of these CLEs is that we get chocolate. This morning, our croissants were accompanied by chocolate butter. They also have little candy dishes out with tons of Hershey chocolate.

As Charlie Bucket would tell you, chocolate is wonderful.

My middle daughter agrees with me. For her birthday this year, she requested peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes.

I channeled my inner Mr. Hershey … I mean Mr. Wonka … and made some really delicious ones. The center has a ganache filling made with … Hershey kisses! The Oompa-Loompas would be so proud of me that they would sing a song in my honor.

The Promos

Path of Silence by Edita A. Petrick is on the Kindle. From the Amazon page:

Meg Stanton rides a desk in the cold case unit with the Baltimore PD. Her day starts like any other—with parent-child struggles, a dire need for a large coffee and a partner who is a conglomerate of neuroses. However, it ends like no other day…with a dead body on the hood of her partner’s car that signals a beginning of a strange journey of self-destructing bodies, all fitted with pacemakers that make them vulnerable to the killer. Who is the mastermind behind all this? Who could callously use his fellow man as living guinea pigs for an ingenious new weapon? And how many people will have to die before Meg finds answers even as her life is unraveling around her…?

We also have a spooky book giveaway: Afraid of the Dark: An All-Genre Giveaway for Stories with Spooky, Creepy, or Gothic Elements … perfect for Halloween! If you like some chills, be sure to check it out. Ten Tiny Tales of Terror by Donna B. McNicol looks pretty good.

Review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars for its originality (and it is now a classic), but 1 out of 5 stars for its creep factor. I’m talking about dude in a ‘stache, riding in a white van, handing out candy to little kids, kind of creep.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator) is about a very poor boy named Charlie Bucket, who wins a golden ticket to visit the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory.

Previously, Mr. Wonka fired everyone who worked for him because other chocolatiers were stealing his secrets. For quite some time, no one was allowed to visit the chocolate factory.

That is, until Mr. Wonka decides to wrap 5 chocolate bars with golden tickets. If you unwrap a chocolate bar, and it has a golden ticket, you are the lucky duck who gets to visit the factory!

Charlie Bucket, of course, wins. He’s the last to win. The others are Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee.

The other winners are nasty little children, though. Augustus Gloop is fat and eats everything. Veruca Salt is a spoiled brat. Violet Beauregarde only chews gum. And Mike Teavee watches a lot of TV.

Each of the other four children get tossed out of the chocolate factory in some questionable moral manner or another. Augustus Gloop gets sucked up into a tube. Veruca Salt falls down into a refuse chute (which may lead to an incinerator). Violet Beauregarde turns into a blueberry and has to be “dejuiced” by the Oompa-Loompas. And Mike Teavee get magically teleported into the TV, but is made an inch tall.

All through this, Mr. Wonka is an asshat. That’s because he wants to give his chocolate factory to one lucky kid. The kid who survives the Hunger Games (pun intended). Mr. Wonka also has some questionable slavery going on (the Oompa-Loompas).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is actually quite a dark and disturbing book, bordering more on light horror for the middle grade rather than a fun, light-hearted book. The moral of the story is also questionable: don’t do anything, and rich people will give you things.

Of course, the actual moral of the story is that you shouldn’t be an entitled brat because some creepy dude who enslaves short people might kill you, all while Oompa-Loompas sing a song.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars for its originality (and it is now a classic), but 1 out of 5 stars for its creep factor. I’m talking about dude in a ‘stache, riding in a white van, handing out candy to little kids, kind of creep. Not like Halloween, ghost-sightings creep.

Happenings

Last week, I didn’t have any promotions scheduled, so I didn’t send out the newsletter. This also happened to be back-to-back with a regular scheduled break (which I take about every three months).

Although I missed writing, it did give me a chance to catch up on some much needed to-dos. Including knocking some stuff off my reading list.

Not much else has happened, but I’ve got a bunch of new recipes up on the blog (including the aforementioned peanut butter cupcakes with whipped cream frosting).

Here is Johnny Depp in the 2005 film of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, including some musical numbers.