There once was a woman who woke up, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.'

So she did and she had a wonderful day.

Like many other amazing women entertainers of the twentieth-century, Marlene Dietrich was beautiful, charismatic and willful.

She began reinventing herself from the age of about 11, when she created the name Marlene (pronounced mar-lay-na) from parts of her two given names Marie and Magdalene.

One day, as a young woman sat in her garden, she noticed a cocoon hanging from a nearby branch.

Before long, a small opening appeared in the cocoon. The woman watched for several hours as the butterfly within struggled to free itself from the envelope in which it had recently been transformed.

Then, it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could not go any further.