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Don't Panic, It's Towel Day!
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon May 25, 2009 08:31 AM
from the he's-just-this-guy-ya-know dept.
from the he's-just-this-guy-ya-know dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Today, as every May 25th, geeks all over the world celebrate Towel Day and carry a towel in honor of Douglas Adams. The popular author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy died in 2001 at the age of 49, but his work lives on. According to the book, a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Hence its symbolic role in this celebration. This year, for the first time as far as we know, Towel Day is being supported by the British publisher of Adams' books, who organizes a photo competition."
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Submission: Don't Panic, it's Towel Day! by Anonymous Coward
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Coincidence? I think not! (Score:2)
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And I use a towel every day!
But maybe it's time to always have a towel stuffed somewhere to make sure that it's possible to escape the Vogons. Now - where did I put my thumb? OK, I don't panic over a missing thumb.
And still - all the way through the weirdness provided by Douglas Adams there is also a thread of clarity and irony over the society we have.
Few other authors have the skill to let the story change direction like the ball in a pinball game, kick out at various issues with our society and still hav
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Pretty much by definition, a "hoopy frood", being someone who is hip and cool, is in no need of any Salmon of Doubt, as their hipness and coolness is deserved and unshakable. And this is why Zaphod is a poster-boy for hoopy-froodiness.
And remember kids... (Score:3, Informative)
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Douglas Adams was smarter than your average bear (Score:5, Interesting)
-- Douglas Adams, Speech at The University of California
Re:Douglas Adams was smarter than your average bea (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed he was.
[An extraterrestrial robot and spaceship has just landed on earth. The robot steps out of the spaceship...]
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
Parent
Re:Douglas Adams was smarter than your average bea (Score:4, Interesting)
Your sig is remarkably apt, after that quote...
Parent
Buy the books (Score:5, Informative)
If you live in Europe, you can buy THHGTTG with amazing discounts [bol.com]. Not affiliated with bol.com, just a satisfied customer and also surprised that they actually give discounts on this special day.
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Um, its not the anniversary of his death, that's n the 11th of May.
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"Oh, you know, it is now 50 years since this author died [...]"
Douglas Adams died in 2001.
So sayeth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams [wikipedia.org] and the Google search results cached snippet from douglasadams.com, http://www.google.com/search?q=douglas+adams [google.com]
I'm sure you can find other sources if you want.
HHGTTG is from 1979; that is, it's thirty years old.
(No particular point. Just trying to add food for thought.)
It's just not that good (Score:2)
Sure, the 1st book is mildly humorous, but that's as far as it goes and the rest of them are simply tiresome.
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Do yourself a favour, listen to the original 2 series from the radio. After that it's all crap. As for the TV and movie, bah !
"Immensely durable science-fiction comedy that taught us all not to panic.
It may have spawned a BBC TV series, five novels and a biggish-budget movie, but purist
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I have them as audio books, read by the master himself. A sample: http://houghi.org/Fun/h2g2_sample.mp3 [houghi.org]
Great to listen to when sitting in traffic on the way to work/home. Much better then listening to the radio.
After a north korean nuclear test... (Score:4, Insightful)
kinda busy (Score:2)
Percussion (Score:2)
Percussionists know the usefulness of towels. We use exclusively black towels because they look better on stage, but they can be used for:
Re:Percussion (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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I hear you can use it for a pillow or a blanket when you're sleeping on a couch...
So long... (Score:3, Funny)
...and thanks for all the fish.
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:4, Funny)
don't panic
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:4, Funny)
So, ten out of ten for on-topic reply, but minus several million for not respecting the dead.
Parent
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If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
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So, ten out of ten for an intelligent reply, but minus several million for not getting the reference.
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Why should we respect the dead? They're dead, they don't care if we respect them or not.
Your grandmother was a whore.
It is the those that loved them still living that you can respect.
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:4, Funny)
They just suffered a permanent existence failure... http://www.towelday.org/ [towelday.org]
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:4, Insightful)
since 1776 and there is a post on Memorial Day about a fucking holiday celebrating the fucking towel?
While vulgar, Parent is not a Troll. It is a comment (likely, but not necessarily, from a veteran) about this being an actual national holiday to honor our fallen military.
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm Canadian, and I do have may 25th on my calendar.
And it's Towel Day.
Parent
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Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Insightful)
And though it's Memorial Day in one part of the world, this site is a part of the WORLD WIDE web.
I don't think that your post is a Troll, but please recognize that there is more than one thing going on around the universe today.
Parent
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Yeah, there may be a world wide audience, but posting a story about a minor significance of a day 1:29 before the end of the day for some people means they don't care about people too far to the east.
(This story posted at 22:31 Japan Standard Time)
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I don't think the district is big enough.
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Actually all of this could easily be solved with many large space based mirrors to light/shade the earth as needed. Baddaboombaddabing, it's the same time everywhere!
Sure it would kill off all kinds of animals and probably heat the earth up, but wouldn't it be worth it to have it be the same time everywhere on earth? And don't forget we could have nice long days every day of the year.
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I don't think you could fit 6 billion people in Greenwich...
If you expand it a bit. You can comfortably fit 6 billion people in Britain, not taking the issue of how you handle the growth into consideration.
And they claim the world is overpopulated!
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So Greenwich is too small, but Greater London at 1579 sqkm would be just about right.
This analysis purposefully ignores stacking possibilities, because those are just too damn awkward.
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Don't know, but that's a cube of only about a quarter of a kilometre per side so I expect it could fit comfortably enough. You might need to knock a few buildings down but since we'll all be cremated I don't suppose anyone will mind.
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think that your post is a Troll, but please recognize that there is more than one thing going on around the universe today.
Of course. I mean the Universe is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you submitted the article outlining the importance/significance of the day?
And though it's Memorial Day in one part of the world, this site is a part of the WORLD WIDE web.
I don't think that your post is a Troll, but please recognize that there is more than one thing going on around the universe today.
I honestly am embarrassed by my countrymen and women who ignorantly assume since today is a holiday in the United States, that the entire world stops. It simply shows how internationally stupid most Americans are. We barely learned American history in our public schools much less global history. Yay, federally funded public schools.
</rant>
Sigh... it's an American holiday. Welcome to globalization.
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Informative)
celebrating the fucking towel?
No. It's celebrating Douglas Adams and his writings.
The towel is an item used to celebrate DA, in much the same way that you don't celebrate a flag but use a flag in celebration of your (sadly fallen) compatriots.
It's all about the symbolic value. Just as a flag is a symbol for national pride (which is a Great Thing when not done in excess), the towel is a symbol for (and manifestation of) Douglas Adams' witty humor.
Also, on slashdot, what percentage is American? What percentage has read Douglas Adams?
But wait... I thought the 42nd day was Towel Day?
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Informative)
Memorial day isn't set for the 25th, its set for the last Monday in may. The two do not coincide most years.
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for reminding us that the USA is the most important country in the world.
Parent
Re:There are ~1,308,361 American dead... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, yeah, some days are going to be shared. Doesn't mean they have to be mutually exclusive. For example, May 25th is also:
Cookie Monster's Birthday - I tried carrying around a cookie, but I ate it. It was delicious and I poured out some crumbs for my muppet hommies who ain't here.
National Missing Children's Day - read a milk carton, maybe save a life.
National Tap Dance Day - Part of me hopes there's a afterlife just so there can be a Gregory Hines/Douglas Adams smackdown for this day.
Cover The Uninsured Day - Pretty relevant, really.
And, the one you might be most interested in, National Smile Day.
Besides, Memorial Day falls on the last Monday in May (or May 30th, depending on how you feel about 1971 and the federal government), so it's really just a guest on this particular May 25th and maybe it should behave itself better?
Parent
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hey, that's the tune to funkytown!
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That is not a coincidence. It is just it has a very high improbability that it would happen. Apperently you dropped to a chance of 1:1. Now it is 365:1 (and falling).
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He said "but fuck" uh huh huh huh huhuhuh.