Your bike is named WHAT?

Someone asked me to explain Elphaba – “who is that” they said. I guess I should explain.


Elphaba Thropp is my beautiful bike. She is a Specialized Dolce and very sweet. We are still getting to know each other but so far, we work very well together. She has been very patient with me and for that I love and care for her as best I can – which is not much now (according to the annoyingly cheery bike mechanics at the cycle shop – WHO ASKED YOU? Do the job and shut it!) but I do promise as I learn and grow she will fare better and better.

And so will I.

Elphaba Thropp is the name of the Wicked Witch of the West in Gregory Maguire’s book,
“ Wicked”. This is the book that the Broadway musical was inspired by. I love how he expanded and explained her character and made her a heroine of sorts in the story.

OK, so bear with me here ....“Wicked” is the explanation of what was really happening in Oz during the timeframe of the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. In the original movie the neighbor that hated Dorothy and Toto - Ms Almira Gulch – was, in Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West. In Oz she rode a broom, but in Kansas , she rode a bicycle – while she was riding they played this very funny (to me) menacing music.

When the tornado struck, you could see her in the wind funnel on her bike…THAT image, along with synchronicity that Elphaba Thropp initials are ET (like the movie). The strongest image I have in my mind of ET was the silhouette of Elliots bicycle over the treetops, against the moon.

I don’t ride a broom – not in public anyway – and I don’t consciously know any exterrestrials who can make my bike soar, but Elphaba is the closest I will get to flight under my own steam. And; you can say I am a witch on a bicycle or a bitch on a bicycle. You are probably correct. In which case – watch your back!

Elphaba is my bike. And that is how she got her name. If you still don’t get it, you aren’t ready.