Towel Day!

[Kangaroo495]

I'm sure some of you have read it... I mean the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So many great, great quotes have come from the book (all of which escape me at this moment).

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/2...adams-towel-day

Are you the kind of hoopy frood who knows where your towel is? If so, you're in good company. All over the world today fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are heeding Douglas Adams's words that a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have" and are conspicuously carrying one with them for the day in honour of the writer who died nine years ago.

Towel Day events are taking place around the world, and include a pub lunch in Brisbane, flashmobs in Brazil and Berlin, a picnic in Budapest, a Vogon poetry slam in Portland, Oregon, a beer party in Zagreb and a "nice cup of tea" event outside the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Many more people have simply pledged to carry a towel.

A further twist on the day is provided by Terry Pratchett fans, who "wear the lilac" on 25 May in honour of the events in the novel Night Watch and in support of Alzheimer's research, who are combining the two events by wearing lilac towels.

Although the actual date of Adams's death, of a heart attack at the age of 49, was 11 May, Towel Day is celebrated two weeks later, remaining faithful to the date of the first event, which was set up as a wake for fans soon after his sudden death. This year's event is the first since the widespread use of Twitter, and tweets by Adams's friends and followers, who count Stephen Fry and Neil Gaiman among their number, have spread awareness of the day. A website for the celebrations, towelday.org, is co-ordinating the events taking place across the world and urging fans to upload pictures of their towels to Flickr and YouTube and to tweet with the #towelday hashtag.

Although the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series was first broadcast more than 30 years ago, it remains popular and has spawned six novels, a TV series, a computer game, three major stage productions and a film. Last year, to mark the 30th anniversary of the first book, the sixth novel, And Another Thing … by Eoin Colfer (the bestselling Irish author most famous for his Artemis Fowl series), hit the bestseller lists. Hundreds of people gathered at London's South Bank wearing dressing gowns to celebrate the anniversary.

Adams's creation also went intergalactic in October last year. As Nasa's LCROSS lunar mission spacecraft travelled towards the moon at more than 9,000 kilometres per hour, it tweeted in the words of the existential sperm whale from the first novel: "And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round ... it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'! ... That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?" Then it crashed into the moon.

Meanwhile, Cern, home to the Large Hadron Collider, is also joining in the fun. The Cern Bulletin writes: "The fact that Cern's latest building carries the number 42 has not escaped the attention of people both inside Cern and outside, particularly as we approach the anniversary of Adams' untimely death in May 2001. In honour of their favourite author, Adams' fans have declared 25 May International Towel Day – another cryptic reference to 'The Guide'. So if you see unusually large numbers of people carrying their towels with them on 25 May, Don't Panic, it's only about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have!"

[Colt45]

Don't forget to bring a towel....

[gfoster]

I have my towel today...

-- Gary F.

[Wiley]

Back in 1984, this was the first retail computer game I ever played, or had seen, or heard of. And it was text-only. Thus at a young age I discovered that computers hurt my brain.

[thechenman]

Back in 1984, this was the first retail computer game I ever played, or had seen, or heard of. And it was text-only. Thus at a young age I discovered that computers hurt my brain.

Do you remember Zork?

[mazolaman]

Great post,Kangaroo,the man was a genius.

[Wiley]

Do you remember Zork?

Yeah, was that first? It's been so long, I can't recall. Text-based adventures, living the dream, baby!

[khomeinist]

Zork! No Gauntlet but kinda fun in a Def Lepard 1984 sorta way.

[Habana Mike]

Got to get you one of these one of these

I *hate* commercialization