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Julia Levy's avatar

This is a great piece! Clearly I love anyone with the name Julia, but JC takes our name to the next level!

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Ruth Stroud's avatar

Thanks so much, Julia! I love the name too--and of course, as you can tell, I'm a huge fan of the woman and all that she accomplished.

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Marg Moon's avatar

You are such an inspiration Ruth! I love this article and all the potential rabbit holes it can take you down. I enjoyed Julie and Julia and I can't wait to see the new series. It's not available in Australia yet, but hopefully it will be soon. She was such an amazing person. I admire her spirit.

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Ruth Stroud's avatar

Thank you, Marg! I hope the series becomes available in Australia soon. I’m sure you will love it. It’s great fun, and Sarah Lancashire is perfect in the role. After watching the series and the documentary, I think I need to go back and watch Julia and Julia. As you say, there are many rabbit holes to explore!😊

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Jolene Handy's avatar

Ruth, I love this so much! Beautifully written and so much great information - love the pic of the Chicken Sisters! How wonderful to have your Mom’s copy of Mastering. (And thanks so much for the shout-out) ❤️

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Ruth Stroud's avatar

Thanks so much, Jolene! Your Q&A with Sara was part of the inspiration for writing it, so thanks to you too!💕 I’m loving Mom’s copy of Mastering, debating what to make. Maybe I’ll have to go the “Julia and Julia” route and make everything!🤗

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Jolene Handy's avatar

I like it! 🤗

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Ruth Stroud's avatar

Thanks for applying your keen historian’s eye to Julia’s letter exchange with Iris DeVoto. Now I’m eager to read same. I agree that it’s really the person that captivates our interest, though the food does set us dreaming, if not cooking. Yes, the British women of that era--and my mother was among them--were examples of grit and humor under stress that I also miss. Thanks for pointing this out, Annette.

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Annette Laing's avatar

Ruth, I never paid Julia the slightest attention after I came to America in my teens. And then I read Julie and Julia, which I enjoyed. But it was the movie version that really captured me: Meryl Streep and the filmmakers did such an amazing job of bringing her *and her era* to life. So now I had my historian hat on. I read Julia's letters to and from Iris DeVoto, and just was smitten. It's not the food: It's the person. A woman who said what she thought, was sharp and yet uncynical, who didn't have time for shallow self-promoters, and who inspired great loyalty from everyone around her--except the gatekeepers, whom she simply ploughed through by keeping on. THAT's the role model we need now. I knew her British peers (not as cooks, but as people) and miss them terribly, these women who survived the War, and for whom life held no more terrors after that. I bought her cookbooks, and have yet to try any of her recipes. I probably never will. And that's ok. But keeping Julia Child in the conversation and our consciousness seems to me terribly important, and however I can help in that, I will.

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