Day 287 - Nora Ephron Has No New Ideas

Day 287.

We've previously covered Nora Ephron's self-plagiarizing tendencies before on the Lawrence/Julie & Julia Project, but here's a quick reminder in case you forgot:

Basically, all you need to know is that Nora wrote a nice little "What I love about cooking" paragraph in her novel, Heartburn, back in 1983 and and she reworded it slightly to fit the "chocolate creme pie" scene in Julie & Julia. Personally, I thought this was kind of lazy, but whatever--I'm just a guy who has seen this movie way too many times.

It was startling then to learn today that in fact, Nora Ephron's been using this same stupid bit to coast on through to success and respect in the culinary world. Don't believe me? Well my friend Audrey found this little intro blurb in the "Stocks and Sauces" chapter of her Culinary Theory and Practice textbook.

BOOM! THE EXACT SAME QUOTE. IN A TEXTBOOK ABOUT COOKING. WHAT QUALIFIES YOU TO BLURB THIS STOCKS AND SAUCES CHAPTER, NORA EPHRON? WHAT???? YOU ARE NOT A REAL CHEF LIKE JULIA CHILD OR MARIO BATALI! YOU ARE SOME OLD BLOWHARD!

Sure, the whole thing carries a nice little sentiment about cooking and stability, but dammit Nora--COME UP WITH SOME NEW MATERIAL.

(though in reality, you could probably say the exact same thing to me...)

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Julie & Julia Quote of the Day: "Dear Avis, enclosed is part of our cookbook from the chapter on sauces."