![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
all wound up about nothing.
Aug. 12th, 2010 09:58 pmI have been reading this book that is historical fiction/espionage. I have been thoroughly enjoying it and then last night a single line in the book made me pause. There is a section of the book that takes place in Washington D.C. and references the early days of the OSS (precursor to the CIA) and there is a character mentioning the interesting people that came to work for the OSS. In particular people who would later go on to become famous for a variety of reasons. (this is true. There are sooooooooo many people that were recruited by the OSS that went onto many great things) A character said something about a tall vivacious woman named Julia Child.
In the moment I thought, "haha... how neat." Then about a page later I thought, "wait a second..."
My horrible pedantic side came out. That point in the book it is about 1940. Julia Child was her married name. She didn't meet her husband Paul Child until she went to Ceylon for the OSS in 1944 and they didn't marry until after the war.
The book isn't ruined for me and I can forgive the author for a lapse of that kind (and the book was written over twenty years ago) but I think my brief annoyance lay with whomever edited the book and a possible fact-checker.
I also thought, "what the heck, it is fiction. You can make up all kinds of rules when it is fiction."
Now it is just a funny thing I caught.
...
I was putting together dinner tonight and I was trying to think of a "starch" to go with everything. I found one potato in the fridge and I remembered that the potatoes in the garden should be ready and so I went out and dug up a few. I love digging up potatoes. It is kind of like digging up treasure. I also dug up a beautiful carrot. I mentioned elsewhere that I am not very good at growing carrots. But somehow I did it. But back to the potatoes I brought them in, cleaned them, cooked them and made a nice little potato salad. by digging through the potato bed and bringing some bugs to the surface (because of the mulch) the garden was filled with woodpeckers. A buffet I guess. I picked a bunch of blackberries from the brambles and made a cobbler. It was a good day in the garden.
In the moment I thought, "haha... how neat." Then about a page later I thought, "wait a second..."
My horrible pedantic side came out. That point in the book it is about 1940. Julia Child was her married name. She didn't meet her husband Paul Child until she went to Ceylon for the OSS in 1944 and they didn't marry until after the war.
The book isn't ruined for me and I can forgive the author for a lapse of that kind (and the book was written over twenty years ago) but I think my brief annoyance lay with whomever edited the book and a possible fact-checker.
I also thought, "what the heck, it is fiction. You can make up all kinds of rules when it is fiction."
Now it is just a funny thing I caught.
...
I was putting together dinner tonight and I was trying to think of a "starch" to go with everything. I found one potato in the fridge and I remembered that the potatoes in the garden should be ready and so I went out and dug up a few. I love digging up potatoes. It is kind of like digging up treasure. I also dug up a beautiful carrot. I mentioned elsewhere that I am not very good at growing carrots. But somehow I did it. But back to the potatoes I brought them in, cleaned them, cooked them and made a nice little potato salad. by digging through the potato bed and bringing some bugs to the surface (because of the mulch) the garden was filled with woodpeckers. A buffet I guess. I picked a bunch of blackberries from the brambles and made a cobbler. It was a good day in the garden.
