[Gpdd] Misc: Re: Alge's Name

[Guineapigfilms at aol.com]

Alge chose her GPDD name carefully, and I always loved the way it expressed 
her personality. It's short for "Algernon," and comes from the title of a 
short story, and then a novel, "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.

In the story and book, the character "Algernon" is a laboratory mouse who 
has undergone experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is 
told as a series of progress reports, written by a man named Charlie, who 
is mentally disabled, and who is the first human to undergo the same 
experiment as Algernon, to make him smarter.

The procedure is a success at first, both with Algernon and Charlie, but in 
the end, both of them lose their intelligence. Algernon dies. Charlie goes 
to live in an institution, but asks that flowers be put on Algernon's grave.

As you can see, it's a very sweet, sad story, and touches on many ethical 
and moral themes.

It's been adapted many times for the theatre and film. Probably the 
best-known adaptation was the Academy Award-winning movie, "Charly," starring Cliff 
Robertson (who won an Academy Award for Best Actor).

So you can see why the name fit our compassionate friend, Alge. She was 
always rooting for the underdog, whether it be a mentally disabled man or a 
laboratory rat. And she took the part of a teenager filmmaker (my daughter 
Alyssa) against a blockbuster Hollywood studio, when Disney made G-Force.

And you see how, in the end, the character "Charlie" had so much grace, 
even though his mental abilities were dimmed, that he asked that the lab rat, 
Alge, not be forgotten. Our Alge had so much grace, too. Just as Charlie in 
the book asked that flowers be placed on the lab rat Algernon's grave, our 
Alge made sure that her guinea pigs had new homes before she left on her last 
voyage.

Algernon is a very unique name, just like our Alge was! And it totally fit 
her.

Nancy (& Alyssa)
http://www.carrotwars.com