Not to distract you very much from the glory of John Maine — staked to a 12-0 lead over the Nats — cruising in his return from the DL, but I think we can file the following under didn’t-see-that-one-coming.  The AP’s Brent “Don’t Call Me Todd” Blackledge and Randy Herschcraft reported today the late Julia Child took part in an international spy ring managed by the U.S. Office Of Strategic Service, an intelligence branch of the federal government that predated the CIA.

Among the other notables identified in the report as O.S.S. operatives is Miles Copeland Jr., best known to fans of the rock’n’roll genre as the father of Miles III (IRS Records), Ian (Frontier Booking International) and drummer Stewart (The Police).  While Copeland’s involvement with the O.S.S. (and subsequently, the C.I.A.) has long been a matter of record, I was not aware, for instance, that “Eight Is Enough” author Thomas Braden had played a role in our nation’s intelligence community.

The early IRS Records stranglehold on U.S. college radio and eventual superstardom of the Police was the subject of some ugly conjecture back in the day. But who knows for sure what sort of strings were pulled (and how many innocents were slain) to launch the career of Willie Aames?