Hidy-ho campers! Well, it’s official. I made it farther than
last year, and I feel good about making it all the way through!
Today’s “J” word is: juglandaceous. And it has nothing to do
with jugs. Or boobs. I’m sure some of you are disappointed by that, and that’s
just too bad as this is not an episode of Family Guy. I love that show. (Ladies
and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty…)
Sorry – got a little distracted there for a moment.
Juglandaceous means of, related to, or belonging to the Juglandaceae. Wow! That was super helpful, Heather; thanks for
that! Nah, I’m not gonna leave ya hangin’ like that. Juglandaceae is a family of trees that includes walnut and hickory.
This would be an awesome word to throw down in a game of Scrabble, but I’m not
sure you get that many letter tiles.
Today’s “J” movie is Julie & Julia. I loved this movie.
When I saw it in the theater, I was really surprised at how many men there
were; about half were all by themselves. I guess they were really into cooking.
Or Meryl Streep. Or both. 
This 2009 film stars the aforementioned Meryl Streep, Amy
Adams, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Messina. Jane Lynch is brilliant as Dorothy,
Julia’s sister. This is a sort of combined biography – the telling of Julia
Child’s life, how after working for the head of the Office of Strategic
Services and traveling the world for her work, she met and married her
wonderful husband, Paul; how after moving to Paris and not fitting in with the
other wives and ladies of Paris, she signed up and attended the famous Le
Cordon Bleu cooking school; her emergence into the world of television, up to the year before her death (she died in 2004 and the movie's timeline ends in 2003) – and autobiography of
Julie Powell, who in 2002 decided to challenge herself to cook all the recipes
in Child’s first book – the 726 page Mastering the Art of French Cooking – that
Julia and her good friend Simone Beck fought so hard to get published (whew! Was that a run-on sentence? It felt like a run-on sentence). Julie is
determined to master every single recipe, and her determination nearly causes
her to lose sight of what was really important in her life.
I love, love, love this movie. Meryl is spot on playing
Julia, and just makes you want to sit down with the real Julia Childs and just
be her BFF. It also kind of makes you want to run out and buy your own copy of
Mastering the Art of French Cooking – even if all you use it for is to keep
doors open and kill spiders with it. I highly recommend it (the movie and the book!).
Slightly disappointed over the real meaning of juglandaceous.
ReplyDeleteRecently saw Julie and Julia on DVD and loved it.
Onwards, onwards, Z is not so far away.