I rented Julie & Julia last night

And it was positively adorable. You should see it.

It got me wondering about the Julie though, and why Julia Child might have "hated" her project, so I thought I'd check out the original blog. My google skillz have never been all that, erm, good, so when I typed in Julie Julia Blog, I got a lot of hits to articles bashing Julie Powell. I was confused to say the least. The movie was, well, as I said, positively adorable! Meryl Streep was a DEAD ringer for the Julia I knew and loved as a child watching her show on PBS (anyone else grow up watching Julia and Yan and Justin Wilson and The Frugal Gourmet {aside aside: who turned out to be some sort of sexual deviant, LOL! Takes all kinds ...} like I did?), and while the Julie character was certainly self absorbed to the point of aggravation in the movie, she was certainly quite likable. So why all the bad press for this woman?


Then I started reading the blog. Now, I'm not a writer by any stretch, but I can certainly see why people would be offput by her project. Well, not the project itself, but the unceremonious ... or, maybe irreverant way she records her journey. Oh, yeah, and the poor writing. It's as if the details she chooses to reflect upon are the ones that are beside the point. And, really, who doesn't know what it means for a sauce to coat the spoon or beat something until it ribbons off the wisk?!? Certainly not anyone who has spent a childhood watching afternoon cooking shows on PBS or even a couple of days watching The Food Network (Alton Brown, if you're reading this, I heart you.).

As for Julia Child and her "hatred" of the Julie/Julia Project, I couldn't summarize Sara Moulton's words any better than THIS AUTHOR ALREADY HAS. (by the way, Sara, if you're reading, I really adore you too.)


And I guess that's all I really feel like saying about that. Oh, if you want to read the Julie/Julia Project, you can do so here:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html