Thanksgiving, the Julia Child Way

[elleng]

'At the height of Julia Child’s fame in the 1970s and ’80s, Thanksgiving guests often felt the need to tell her she should get her home number removed from the public directory. (This was an analog tool called a “telephone book.”)

“The phone would ring all day,” said Sheryl Julian, now the food editor for The Boston Globe, who celebrated Thanksgiving dinner in the Childs’ home in 1976 and 1977. “Every time she hung up, it would ring again, and it would be another total stranger with a turkey problem.”

No matter how busy, Mrs. Child would hand off whatever kitchen task she was doing, take the phone and talk the nervous cook down from the ledge. (This could be nerve-racking for guests, Ms. Julian said, who sometimes choked under the pressure of whisking a vinaigrette or topping and tailing green beans for the author of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”)

But Mrs. Child refused to unlist her number or turn off the phone; instead, she embraced the role of national Thanksgiving commander in chief.' >>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/dining/julia-child-thanksgiving.html?

[Warpy]

1. Too bad Aunt Mary wasn't around then. She could have done a recorded message

directing callers to the You Tube video. Since there might still be someone who is petrified of turning out a Thanksgiving turkey and who hasn't seen it, I present it for their delight and edification:

Funny, i used to see Julia Child out and about in Boston and Cambridge in the 70s. It would never have occurred to me to call her at home. First, I could read, and her cookbooks were beautifully laid out. Second, I would never have had the unmitigated gall.

[catbyte]

2. No kidding. Me neither!

[dem in texas]

3. She Was an Amazing Lady

She came to Dallas in August and went to the Farmer's Market and gave a cooking demonstration out in the sweltering heat. This was in the later years of her life, she was in her late 70's, I think. Then she went to another local cooking event the same day. I was amazed that she could do that and hold up to our Texas summer.

[Vinca]

4. Every time I think of Julia and poultry I think of the SNL skit and laugh out loud.

She was a treasure.

[Galileo126]

6. "Save the liver!"

Dan Aykroyd never made me laugh so much as that skit!

[Vinca]

7. Best . . . skit . . . ever.

[Tipperary]

5. I loved her!

[Snobblevitch]

8. What a great story.

I don't rememerber Julia's shows from the 60s and 70s, but I do remember them from the 90s.