Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Bisset

Today would have been the 90th birthday for Roald Dahl and it is the 61st birthday for Jacqueline Bisset. Both people have a special place in my heart.

It is strange but I think of Jacqueline Bisset as having an impact on my life before Roald Dahl. This is strange because Dahl is the children's writer and Bisset the sexy siren.

I read a lot as a kid (and still do read a lot come to think of it). I never read Peter Benchley's Jaws (though I did start the book several times only to become distracted and put it down). I, however, did read his novel The Deep and I read it before I saw the movie of the same name. It was the movie The Deep that made me a fan of Jacqueline Bisset. What young man bursting with hormones could see Bisset in that wet, white T-shirt and not be a fan?

Some people credit Bisset's wet T-shirt poster for the movie with starting the wet T-shirt contest craze that reached its height in the late 70's and early 80's. One of my fondest memories of high school is sneaking into the wet T-shirt contests at the Office Lounge with buddies who also had fake ID's. It may be strange but I have a fond place in my heart for the phrase "No skin - no win!"

Now it is true that technically I was introduced to the work of Dahl before I was introduced to the bosoms of Bisset but I did not realize it at the time. Everyone my age can remember watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a kid. I associated that movie in my mind with Gene Wilder the star of the movie and not the guy who wrote the book upon which it was based though.

As an aside - did you know that they changed the name of the movie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because the producers were afraid that movie goers would think the movie had something to do with the North Vietnamese (the movie came out in 1971 toward the end of the Vietnam war). Every time I think of why they changed the name I chuckle. Did they really believe that people would come away thinking things like "Charlie loves the smell of chocolate in the morning" or "Charlie don't surf but he does make chocolate"?

Anyway - my real introduction to Dahl was as a parent. My wife and I did a good job reading to our kids and one of our favorite "chapter books" (one or two chapters before bed) was James and the Giant Peach. I thank Dahl for making that reading time as interesting for the parent as it was for the kid (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was another good chapter book but the best was The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh).