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…..to bring you news that we already knew.

Julia Child was a spy. And she married a spy.

I thought that we knew this years ago… but then again, I guess not.

I will say, that I have learned some interesting things from the release of her government personnel file. I didn’t know that she had originally tried to join the navy and was rejected because of her height (6’2”). I guess if she were young today, a California girl like her? She could become a beach volley star (sorry I have Olympics on the brain).

Instead she became a spy for the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA), helped develop a shark repellent, returned to Washington, DC after being assigned to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), married her husband and because a consular wife whose husband had a sophisticated palate. Learning from him to appreciate fine food, she attended Le Cordon Bleu. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The question is does her past life as a spy have any bearing on the rest of her life? Absolutely. If she hadn’t been a spy she would never have met her husband, Paul and without Paul? Julia Child wouldn’t have been the woman we came to know and love.