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 Dissertation Award (see) was established at the LSU Women's & Gender Studies department 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 (glioblastoma)

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