Update: Mama Gin 1923-2009

Poor George asked me to thank you all for your kind comments about Mama Gin. He also wanted me to post this picture of her as a lovely young woman.

George was not happy initially with Mama Gin's celebrity status on the web, but I think I've convinced him that these posts have allowed her to develop a fan base that she would not have had otherwise. It's wonderful that you all know and appreciate her as the quirky woman she was.

Although the picture below is not as flattering as the one above, it is how I - and most of you- will always remember her. Standing in our apartment doorway, issuing edicts and other pronouncements.

Mama Gin

3/25/1923 - 5/4/2009

May she rest in peace.

The Mama Gin Files: Queen of the Wicked

Whatever else you may say about Poor George, he's certainly good for a chuckle now and again. I'm not sure how publicly I have announced this yet, but Poor George and I are FINALLY rid of the daily hassles that are Mama Gin- I because I have moved to San Diego, and Poor George because he shipped her off to live with her Number One Son, Stanley, in San Francisco.

Mama Gin is getting along famously in SF as per the photograph below - a photograph that reminds me of one of PG's great moments in domestic comedy.

One day I came home from work to find George in a state of particularly high agitation. I asked him what was wrong. His reply:

"What's wrong? What do you mean 'what's wrong?'" he said, pointing to Mama Gin who was as usual hovering outside, trying to peer in our window. "How am I supposed to feel with Miss Elphaba spying on me all day?"

The characterization was so dead on that I probably howled for thirty minutes.

For those of you who are not fans of "Wicked," Elphaba is the main character who later became known as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Oz books.