I MUST, I repeat, MUST go back to the library and check out this book. It's been so long since I last read it, that I've forgotten the morality tale that it really is. In the meantime, here's a pretty decent bio of Dahl.

I know, it should really go in the books section, but since we've been discussing the movie here, I thought I'd add it here.

Interesting bit about Cadbury Chocolates.

From here

About the Author

Roald Dahl was born September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales. At the age of eight, he was sent to a boarding school in southwest England and went on to attend Repton, a prestigious boarding school near Derby. One of his most vivid memories of his Repton years concerns the testing of chocolate bars. Cadbury, a famous chocolate manufacturer, would occasionally give the students some new types of chocolate bars and ask the students to rate them. While he was performing this pleasant task, Dahl would fantasize about working in the lab where these chocolates were invented. He had no idea, though, that he would one day base a book on these daydreams.

Upon graduating from Repton in 1933, he went to work for Shell Oil Company and was stationed in East Africa. With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. He survived a fiery crash in Libya and numerous dogfights over Greece before he was disabled and sent back to England. During the 1940s, he wrote aseries of stories about his war experiences. The stories were well received, and he decided to become a full-time writer. Throughout the 1950s, he wrote numerous short stories, specializing in what one critic called "the eerie, macabre, chiller-type story."

Dahl began writing for young people in the early 1960s. His first children's book, James and the Giant Peach, was published in 1961 and was followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. Since then he has published numerous books for young readers, including a second book about Charlie entitled Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972). Several of Dahl's children's books have met with strong disapproval from some adults who think that his stories are vulgar, excessively violent, and encourage disrespect for authority. Despite these charges, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and several of his other children's books remain tremendously popular. He died on November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England.

Holy crappity crap, Cher ... I just set aside my Dahl Sweet Mystery of Life to read tonight in bed. I was just unpacking and there it was.

Spoooooky.

Fred,

I did something similar either earlier this week or sometime last week to someone on the CJ's web board (I think it was there). Freaked that person out too.

Cher

Eesh. You must have a GREAT telescope!

have i ever mentioned that willy wonka and the chocolate factory is my all time favorite movie???

just wondering as i await july 15, 2005,
zayne

[quote=zayne,Jun 10 2005, 10:10 PM]
have i ever mentioned that willy wonka and the chocolate factory is my all time favorite movie???

I'm right there with you, Zayne! I got the DVD, finally, for Christmas this past year and spent a whole evening by myself watching it with the commentary by the actors who played the children (all grown up now, of course). For some reason I always gravitated toward the slightly off, just a little bit sinister stuff as a kid (I'd put Maurice Sendak in that category too...I'm using some of the art of Where the Wild Things Are to decorate the nursery!)