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RIP maggiethecat


Dave the Cook

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With great sadness, we note the passing of Margaret M. Rovai, or, as she was known around here, maggiethecat.

 

Maggie was one of our earliest members and cheerleaders. She wrote for, and edited the Daily Gullet, publishing and/or editing the early work of food-literature luminaries such as Tim Hayward, Joseph Carey, Monica Bhide, Todd Price, Andy Lynes, Janet Zimmerman, (the little-known fiction of )Jay Rayner, Nina Planck, Darra Goldstein and JJ Goode, among many others -- not the least herself, whose contributions stand among the best in the Daily Gullet offering. She also invented and judged the Daily Gullet Literary Smackdown.

 

To many of you, that all may sound like ancient history, and measuring in internet time, it is. But if you're reading this, you owe her an inestimable debt. eG is only here because amazing people like Maggie were around to make sure it happened.

 

For those of you who were not FB friends with Maggie, I'll add her daughter Honor's tribute:

 

Quote

Hi all this is Honor Rovai, Margaret’s daughter.

My mom passed away in Seattle on Sunday from complications of PSP, a neurological illness she was fighting for almost a decade.

I was with her holding her hands. Her grandchildren and son in law had just given her hugs, kisses and “I love yous.” We are happy she is at peace but of course very sad to lose her.

I know she was loved by so many, who may have known her best as Margaret, Muffy, Maggie the Cat, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Editor, Writer, Colleague. She was a woman of so many talents, so many enthusiasms, so much curiosity and feeling for the world and the people around her. I can say that she was a wonderful, supportive Mom and a caring and involved Nana to my girls. Funny and so smart, always. We have a long way to go to fully process everything her loss will mean to our family.

We will have a memorial service in the future, date and location to be determined.

 

RIP, Maggie.

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Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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So very sad. RIP Maggie. 

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

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So sad. I didn't know she was dealing with PSP. It's a nasty disorder, especially for someone who was as fiercely independent as she was. Dave, could you keep us posted about the memorial service?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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My goodness, yes, I remember her even though I joined later, I was a lurker person for years.  She was such a gifted writer.  I very much enjoyed her posts.  I'm so sorry about her illness.  Prayers for her family and friends.

 

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17 hours ago, Shelby said:

My goodness, yes, I remember her even though I joined later, I was a lurker person for years.  She was such a gifted writer.  I very much enjoyed her posts.  I'm so sorry about her illness.  Prayers for her family and friends.

 

 

Yes, this. Everything I could say. But Maggie the Cat was sleek and flexible, just like real cats.  

 

This lady was gracious. Fun. Entertaining. 

Edited by FauxPas (log)
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Oh, what sad news. I loved her contributions to eGullet and missed her when she left. RIP, Maggie.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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I haven't met many kindred spirits, but Maggie was one, and I treasure having known her IRL, though it all began here on eG, of course. She was so smart, kind, sophisticated, cultured, elegant, funny, creative, open-minded, wise, worldly, that it surprised me when she once described herself as guileless, but I understood what she meant, and it made me consider the benefits of guilelessness in a whole new light. An ineffable loss, for her lovely family, the eG community, and the world.

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Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

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Losing Maggie is so hard.  When I first joined eG, I admired her from afar - I was almost overawed by her writing and elegance.  Then I got to "know" her and loved her humor and tolerance and generosity.  I remember saying once that she and @racheld were who I wanted to be when I grew up.  Finally, she became a friend - she was so supportive when I was blogging and made me feel that I really could put words together and mean something.  I loved hearing about her family and her Lou and Honor.  No one was more thrilled than Maggie to become a grandmother.  She seemed to draw people and love to her.  I will miss my friend a lot.  

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