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Lifestyles Profile - Gil Gevins By Heather Wilson A master of wacky wordplay, Gil Gevins is the author of two books, “Refried Brains” and “Puerto Vallarta On 49 Brain Cells A Day,” that leave readers helpless with laughter. A 20-year resident of Mexico, he has taken his day-to-day existence and fashioned it into a kind of literary situation comedy. “It all begins with the ability to laugh at yourself,” Gil says. “I may choose to satirize this or that person or group, but my favorite target (the one I know best) is invariably myself.” Not everyone appreciates his quirky humor. The newspaper he started in high school was banned after only one issue by a peeved and perplexed principal and hard-edged satires for an underground ‘70s newspaper lampooning the likes of Scientology and EST upset many a somber devotee. Despite what he calls his “creative adolescence,” he managed to graduate from Cornell University with a degree in wildlife biology. “All that degree did was qualify me to count dead deer,” Gil explains, “so I spent the following five years working in a fire tower, where at least I could look at the ones left alive.” I asked him if there’s anything he takes seriously. “Of course. The Divine Source of all Existence I take very seriously. But pretentious and egocentric behavior should always be cast in the neutralizing light of laughter. It is, after all, the people with no sense of humor who start all the wars.” Born and bred in the Big Apple, he first came to Vallarta for a two-week vacation to visit an ex-girlfriend from California. “Within 10 days she found me a house, a job and a maid. And then she found me a wife – her.” Gil and his vivacious wife, Lucy, have spent the last 20 summers getting to know their adopted country and searching out folk art for their Vallarta shop, Lucy’s Cucú Cabaña. Unsurprisingly, many of the beautifully crafted objects they carry are, like Gil’s books, quite zany, leaving many of their clients laughing out loud.

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