The Towel Day Blogfest!

First up, HUGE thanks to our fearless leader L.G. Keltner who's love for Douglas Adams is almost as incomprehensible as the cosmos.  Quick note here, her A to Z challenge was a 26 part story that so closely resembled the twisted logic, absurd connections and life changing hilarity of the Hitchhiker's series itself that it would be a true tragedy in your life for you to miss it.  If you haven't read it yet, put it on your reading list.  Really.  It's just great.  And a perfect send up to the genius who inspired this blogfest.

And now, Douglas Adams.  I could not possibly sum up how something as magnificent as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy effected me.  Well, maybe if I had Deep Thought here.  But it’d undoubtedly tell me something incredibly unhelpful like “42” or something.  So I’m just going to hide under my towel until this is all over.

Or I could take the easy way out and simply share some of my favorite quotes and moments with you.

First up: The Infinite Improbability Drive is one of the greatest creations the universe has ever known.  Far better than, say, smug automatic doors and the super-genius robots that hate them.  In addition to being a terribly useful device it also provides us with some of the best quotes like

"Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” spoken by Aurthur upon seeing Ford's particular reaction to the dive.  And I was delighted to get an inside glimpse of the thought process of sperm whale on the occasion of being suddenly called into existence and then plummeting to its untimely death

"Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name – ground!  I wonder if it will be friends with me?"

Next, where would would we be without the Restaurant at the Edge of the Universe?  Missing out on some of the finest dining, most elaborate decor and best show in existence, that's where!  It has become a common problem-fixing location to set up characters when you'd like to be able to see them interact without destroying the canon because while it may be completely impossible for those two characters to know each other it is impossible for them to get to know each other in this restaurant as it is, itself, impossible.  Try it the next time you get stuck in your writing, you'd be surprised what gets knocked loose.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in addition to being the most successful book ever to come out of Ursa Minor, is also a great source for hilarity.  From the psychological benefit of carrying around a towel:

"any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.” to filling you in on the greatest drink in existence, the effect of which is "is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."  But of course the best thing about is is the cover- it's not the fact that the words "Don't Panic" appear on the front, it's the fact that they are printed in large, friendly letters that really reassures.

And of course, the most useful thing in the entire galaxy and the source of this hop's name: the Towel.

"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 mindbogglingly 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."

Makes me want to take a shower whilst studying star charts.  And, of course, read more Douglas Adams. 

Thanks for stopping by, all.  And Happy Towel Day!