Tigger

Tigger and Anna, circa 1998

Tigger, better known to many by the pseudonym Ann Veronica Simon stated on her birth-certificate, was Woozle's close friend and confidant from 1981 until her death, and much-beloved godmother to Anna Nikola. As one of Jenny's close friends in the CFS middle school circa 1979, she was a founding member of the "Goresum Foursum" (along with Cindy S. and Erika J.)

Woozle gave her the name "Tigger" – in commemoration of her eternally energetic and bouncy nature – while they were both at Brown, which she attended as an undergraduate from 1985-1989 and where she became a member of the Delta Psi chapter at King House.

She had almost completed graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley at the time of her death; she was granted her degree posthumously. The Ann Veronica Simon Outstanding Gender Studies Dissertation Award was established at LSU in her honor not long after. (See 2006 Ann Simon fundraising letter for details)

Some original Tigger phrases:

• Whatever wiggles your guinea-pig.
• Please kiss your own spaghetti.

Details

• Born: February 15, 1968 (Valentine's Boxing Day)
• Died: February 24, 2003, Berkeley, CA; brain/spinal cancer

Related Articles

• The Tigger category has photos
• 2007.02 Ann wrote the first two lines (perhaps more; not sure) and inspired the overall verbal feel of the song Your Brilliant Career, a rough draft of which is now available for free download (MP3).

Links

• Brian's page about Ann's cancer (was): good photos of Tigger in life, and the story of a heartbreaking struggle
• The Tigger Appreciation Society: from the Hypertwins, updated on Tigger's last living birthday. this page needs to be resurrected; I still have the files.
• Ann's Writings:
  • Excerpts from A Biography of My Vocabulary
  • Poem for an Older Woman
  • An Unauthorized Glossary of my Goddaughter's Vocabulary
• An obituary in alt.obituaries

Hedgehogs! dee dee dee!

~ The Ann Veronica Simon Memorial Collection of Hedgehog Miscellany ~

• True Facts About The Hedgehog
• Thorog
• Hedgehog Video

Cancer Stuff

Projects to fight cancer via distributed computing

• Folding@home: based at Stanford
• WorldCommunityGrid: several projects, including cancer

Medical Progress

• 2008-02-21 Yale Lab Engineers Virus That Can Kill Deadly Brain Tumors: is this a cure, just a few years too late? "A laboratory-engineered virus that can find its way through the vascular system and kill deadly brain tumors has been developed by Yale School of Medicine researchers..."
• 2006-07-19 Possible Birthplace Of Malignant Brain Tumors Identified: "...suggests a possible treatment for ... malignant gliomas"
• 2006-01-19 Mobile phone use not linked to increased risk of glioma brain tumours: Tigger used a cell phone heavily in the last 5 or so years of her life, and I always wondered.
• 2006-01-10 Researchers ... uncover clue to explain invasive brain tumors: glioblastoma multiformae is the type of cancer Tigger had