Mark your calendars NOW!

**gae** · September 28th, 2004, 02:34 PM

You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there's a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fellow hitchhikers in mourning the loss of the late great one. Join in on towel day to show your appreciation for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives.

What do I do?

Carry your towel with you throughout the day to show your participation and mourning.

When do I do it?

May 25th, 2005.

Where do I do it?

Everywhere.

Why a towel?

To quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

**travelinman** · September 28th, 2004, 02:37 PM

The best thing about a towel is you can't get into a nudist camp without one.

**jdf** · September 28th, 2004, 02:45 PM

Gail,

I am not kidding you...she is SLEEPING with that silly towel. She would NOT let gunslinger touch it this weekend to clean up a mess in the kitchen.

YOU are going to be responsible for the counselling bills. [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img]

**gae** · September 28th, 2004, 02:51 PM

Check your email, Kat. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

And just be glad that we didn't start her on Robert Heinlein

Edited to add:

It is NOT a silly towel. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have.

The thought of Em showing up at the next Young Marines meeting with a towel just sets my heart free. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[ September 28, 2004 11:56 AM: Message edited by: gae ]

**Gunslinger** · September 28th, 2004, 02:56 PM

Originally posted by gae:
Check your email, Kat. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

And just be glad that we didn't start her on Robert Heinlein

Hell Gae, she wants to start reading my 'Dark Tower' series. I have told her that she has to wait until she is 15 for those though.

**gae** · September 28th, 2004, 02:58 PM

Originally posted by Gunslinger:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by gae:
Check your email, Kat. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

And just be glad that we didn't start her on Robert Heinlein

Hell Gae, she wants to start reading my 'Dark Tower' series. I have told her that she has to wait until she is 15 for those though.<hr /></blockquote>Is that the Stephen King stuff?

**Piña** · September 28th, 2004, 04:08 PM

Isn't Heinlein that guy who advocates having sex with your daughters and your mother???

**gae** · September 28th, 2004, 05:27 PM

No, Pina, that's Larry Flynt.

**Piña** · September 28th, 2004, 05:45 PM

No, I'm pretty sure it wasn't Larry.

Something about a Lazarus Long guy banging his twin daughters and his mom. I seem to remember he was really into the eugenics thing as well.

Anyone here familiar with Heinlien's work?