Terra Nova Research Base, Antarctica.

RAIN-5800: “Julia Child’s Shark Repellent”

Published in 2009 [no further updates]

The following scenario must have happened to you at some point. It has to. It is one of the most common things to happen in the large human experience.

You meet someone, let’s say, for the sake of the scenario, it is a nice impressible-tall woman with a flute-like voice. This woman is an American, has studied to be a chef in the most prestigious école in France, has published a book on mastering this art, and in a television personality in an era where those were a rare breed. You would assume she’s a nice inoffensive lady with a quirky personality.

Now, let’s change the scenario. You meet an analyst for the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA, an impressive person known for their mind. This is someone who was on the midst of the Second World War, helping to decode messages and, after that, helped the United States Intelligence Community to deal with the Cold War in one of the most contentious scenarios, Europe. They seem to be part of the spy from the James Bond films.

Two different people, with nothing to collide them, right? Yes, at first glance it seems that way. However, scratch beneath the surface, and you’d realize some things overlap. In these scenarios, we are speaking of the same person in both. Judging by the appearance is a primitive and innate instinct in humans, and while a lot of people remain trusting it with all their might, perhaps a bit of logic and reason is needed to make sense of the world that surround us. As much as emotions like love, pride, hate or fear are a sum of the human experience, prejudging seems to be among the earliest and more persistent vices we are yet to eradicate.

It is a weird thing to meet a person and what lies underneath is even stranger than what usually appear to be. Julia Child is a person whose personality is pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get. However, besides being an analyst, a television personality, a wholesome chef, and a woman with a great passion for food, she also helped develop, no sorry, she invented a solution for a huge problem for the US Intelligence Community.

During the Cold War, the protection belt made with underwater mines was being continuously set off by the common sea life of the area, especially sharks. This was troublesome ad nauseum from an environmentalist perspective, since the increasing death of sharks was tilting the food chain; and to much chagrin of the government, since the defence budget was already skyrocketing without the replacement of the mines added to it. A way to keep the sharks at bay was needed, and the OSS began trying a couple of methods.

Mrs. Child, then Ms. McWilliams, started experimenting on different cooking recipes, thinking that, instead of attracting the sharks to other areas, it would be better to create something to repel them. After a couple of tries, she managed to create the world’s first shark repellent.

In the report regarding Shakespeare’s First Folio (RAIN-5879), I said one of the characteristics associated on the world-bending artefacts was the skilful dominium of a craft that channelized their abilities. Though I didn’t mention cooking, is as much of a creative craft as the others listed on the report. Few could deny the passion one invests in the crafts also invigorate the possibility to produce and artefact.

The creation of the Shark Repellent was loaded with the markings of making an artefact. If to that we add the fact that it was also a turn point in Ms. McWilliams life, even if she didn’t know at the time, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

The Shark Repellent Prototype, which is the artefact we are talking about, went into mass production, but Mrs. Child saved the original. Its ability hovered on one single propriety; it can repel anything you desire and the effect lasts 24-48 hours. However, its downside is that you never know exactly when in that range this usage leaves you, nor you can’t dissuade its effects early. Once it’s on, it’s on.

She kept it on her house in Montecito, California, until her death in 2004, when went into a small package inherited to Marcus Athenida, Daedalus’ brother. He, fully aware of the single propriety of the artefact, sent it last month to the base.

Ariel Bonheur, Chief Archivist.