Post by LuccaTheNerd on May 25, 2011 8:30:11 GMT -5
Today (May 25th), we celebrate the life and legacy of Douglas Adams, author of the famed book series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Fans of Adams and his literary work celebrate this day by carrying a towel with them at all times.
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker 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-tohand-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-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker 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 hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker 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.
Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)” -The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
If you’re interested in joining in on the fun, grab a towel and keep it on you at all times today! Make sure it’s conspicuous so that people may see it; it could very well make a great conversation starter! For more information about Towel Day, its origin, rules, and to see a list of events around the world (to check for something near you), please visit www.towelday.org
Will you be participating in Towel Day today? I know I will be. I’m even bringing mine to work with me; we’ll see how that goes.
And remember,
