As a self-employed cookbook indexer I felt obligated to see the movie, Julie & Julia, even though I never cared for Julia Child or French cooking. I mean, Meryl Streep is wonderful, isn’t she?
When the movie suddenly introduced Irma S. Rombauer, author of The Joy of Cooking, I was as stunned and in awe as Julia was. Irma has long been my heroine for producing the culmination of, and antidote to, all those syrupy Betty Crocker-type cookbooks I grew up with. Like Julia in the movie, I listened to Irma’s litany of big-publisher perfidy with an equal amount of growing horror.
When Irma concluded her ‘plaint by wailing about the ineptness of her publisher’s indexer in putting “Crispy Chicken” under “D” for “Drumstick” rather than “C,” I probably had the biggest smile in the audience.
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