{"id":92771,"date":"2015-12-10T14:40:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T19:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92771"},"modified":"2015-12-10T14:40:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T19:40:06","slug":"identity-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/10\/identity-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_92775\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/moneypenny-yolt1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92775\" class=\"wp-image-92775\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/moneypenny-yolt1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/moneypenny-yolt1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/moneypenny-yolt1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-92775\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lois Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cMr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: \u2018Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it\u2019s enemy action\u2019.\u201d\u00a0\u2015Ian Fleming,\u00a0<em>Goldfinger<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In kindergarten, no one but Michael L. had actually seen a James Bond film. (Michael L., as opposed to Michaels A. and T., was very sophisticated, and his parents let him watch lots of movies.) But thanks to Michael L., we knew all about them: James Bond was a spy who wore a suit. He had girlfriends called Octopussy and Pussy Galore, presumably because he liked cats. He often said \u201cBond. James Bond,\u201d and sometimes \u201c007: <em>License to Kill<\/em>.\u201d Armed with this information, we played James Bond every day at recess. Michael L. was always James Bond. My best friend was one of the cats; it varied. I was Moneypenny.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This was similar to the roles I gave myself in other games\u2014fairy godmother, best friend, C-3PO\u2014but Moneypenny was the best. According to Michael L., she never had to \u201chug and kiss\u201d Bond, but she was in every movie. This seemed to me the ideal compromise.<\/p>\n<p>The next time I was Moneypenny was in college. It was Halloween and I had to throw together a last-minute costume. So I wore a cardigan and a skirt and carried a notepad and pencil, and nobody knew who I was (a few people guessed librarian) but I didn\u2019t care. For the next ten years or so, whenever I needed to come up with a costume, I just wore my work clothes and was Moneypenny. It was much easier than working up a disguise.<\/p>\n<p>Then, one New Year\u2019s Eve, I was finally invited to a fancy, grown-up party with a 007 theme. I would, of course, go as Moneypenny. I dressed in a pencil skirt and a silk blouse and a pair of heels, and I felt pretty spiff. When I got there, everyone was in evening wear, looking very glamorous, and I was the only Moneypenny in the house. I think people probably thought I was underdressed, even though I was Bond\u2019s right-hand woman. As I admired their gowns and the view, I realized I had never, in fact, actually seen a full Bond film. Maybe, it dawned on me, I wasn\u2019t even really dressed as Moneypenny. After all, I had been taking a five-year-old\u2019s word for it for an awfully long time.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u201cMr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: \u2018Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it\u2019s enemy action\u2019.\u201d\u00a0\u2015Ian Fleming,\u00a0Goldfinger In kindergarten, no one but Michael L. had actually seen a James Bond film. (Michael L., as opposed to Michaels A. and T., was very sophisticated, and his parents let him watch lots [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[20514,1257,20516,1146,1455,20513,20515,81,6017,20517],"class_list":["post-92771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-action-heroes","tag-costumes","tag-dressing-up","tag-halloween","tag-james-bond","tag-kindergarten","tag-moneypenny","tag-movies","tag-new-years-eve","tag-spectre"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Everything I Know About James Bond I Learned in Kindergarten<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 10, 2015 \u2013 &nbsp;\u201cMr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: \u2018Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it\u2019s enemy action\u2019.\u201d\u00a0\u2015Ian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/10\/identity-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Identity Crisis by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 10, 2015 \u2013 &nbsp;\u201cMr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: \u2018Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. 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