Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day

Subject: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: SDShad
Date: 23 May 01 - 06:20 PM

A grassroots movement on the net has sprung up in the week-or-so since the death of "Hitchhiker's Guide" and "Dirk Gently" author Douglas Adams to honor and remember a friend of the net (and a friend to people seeking to be both amused and challenged) in an appropriate, and yet somehow slightly odd way.

Thus, Towel Day: follow this here blicky for details, but the upshod is, on Friday, always know where your towel is.

Seeing as I've carried a towel (a garish hand-towel all of orange, yellow, and white checkerboard) in my satchel since 1983 for that very reason, I'm ready. But if you're a lover of DNA's work, consider joining in on Friday.

[The Long Dark Teatime of the] Shad

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 May 01 - 06:35 PM

Just left a message for myself on the answering machine about it. Thanks! :)

"Hello, you've reached Molly. If a legion of hideous poetical Vogons are attacking, press 1. If you need beer and/or peanuts, press 2. If you've lost your towel, God help you. Thank you and have a nice day!"

M

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 23 May 01 - 07:04 PM

What else can one say, but SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH, so much pleasure given to so many. If theatre Clywd ever want to start a tour I'll be the first to but a ticket

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 01 - 12:43 AM

Thanks for the link and info, Teatime Shad! I've got my towel, it is finally so worn it is that thin and soft type now, so snugly!

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Amergin
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:02 AM

Cool....but wouldn't Thursday be a bit more appropriate?

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: mousethief
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:04 AM

Are you kidding? Know where my towel is on a Thursday? I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

Alex

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: SDShad
Date: 24 May 01 - 12:27 PM

That was, in fact, the precise reasoning behind Towel Day not being a Thursday, Alex. That, and it being exactly two weeks since DNA's premature demise.

It was also precisely the argument in favor of Thursday. If DNA fans were ever to all agree on anything, the Universe would suddenly disappear and be replaced with something even stranger.

There are those who maintain that this has already happened, several times....

Belgium!

S.

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Matt_R
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:17 PM

Hey SD!! Long time no see!! Now you're a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is!

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:57 PM

At least it's better than Star Wars day...

;-\

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: mousethief
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:59 PM

I think they should make it the 42nd of the month.

No wait; that won't work. What about the 42nd day of the year? February... um.... 11th?

Alex

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:02 PM

Next year they should move it to the day before he died...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: mousethief
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:03 PM

Why the day before he died?

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:09 PM

I missed this entirely, I didn't even know he was dead, and I obviously need to reread these books as all I remember is 42, not towels...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: GUEST,Frood
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:12 PM

I'll be carrying my towel!

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:12 PM

The day he died or after is way too much of a downer...

I suspect that DA'd probably HATE all this geek stuff going on after his death... He was pretty sick of HHGTTG long before he checked out... there's reasons why Mostly Harmless is a horrible book...

A good chum theorises that he's not even really dead... just hiding out from people who only want more HHGTTG books...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: GUEST,Sigmund Frood
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:14 PM

I vill carry a towel to show such great respect.

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:14 PM

Have checked out site. I'm all for the 42nd day of the year being Happy Towel Day, but I couldn't get the link to that discussion to work.

I've told all my old hippie colleagues ... so maybe I won't be the only one here...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: mousethief
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:15 PM

I was actually hoping for another Dirk Gently book. After he wrote Mostly Harmless it was clear he was washing his hands of the whole Hitchhiker's Guide thing. Which is unfortunate. The first 3 books are a lot of fun, and the original radio show is a hoot. I never understand when artists resent the popularity of their own works.

Alex

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:18 PM

Artists don't resent the popularity... what they resent is the constant HOUNDING to do more exactly the same...

Who the hell wants to do THAT with their lives?

Oh and Murzzy... the link to the discussion works, but it's slower than shite.... even on my cable modem... Just keep clicking...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: mousethief
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:23 PM

The hounding is part of being an author. I think you just have to roll your eyes and get on with what you enjoy doing. When Douglas Adams shrugged off HHG and wrote the first Dirk Gently book, there may have been some who wished he had done another HHG book, but I'll bet they were darned few after they read it, since it's such a great book in-and-of itself. If he had gone off in a 3rd direction and created a wholly different fictional universe to people with his wonderful imagination, that would have been great, too.

It's really unfortunate, for example, that Isaac Asimov gave into the pressure and wrote "sequels" to the Foundation trilogy. The Trilogy itself is a fabulous book (well, 3 books) and stands alone as a towering work of science fiction. The sequels suck. There's no nicer way to put it. Or look at the constantly churning Pern sequels. "Toenail Clippers of Pern" we call them at my house. Why couldn't LeGuin have left Earthsea alone? The fourth book is a piece of dreck.

Have I gotten off-topic? Sorry.

Alex

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:35 PM

DA didn't shrug off HHG and write the first DG book... Mostly harmless came after both DG books...

I'm almost certain of that... He was pressured by his publisher to write more HHG after DG more or less flopped... And like a belt he buckled... like a spelunker he caved...

But not to be out done, he made damn sure there could NEVER be any more...

smart guy that DA!

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 24 May 01 - 02:38 PM

We had Staff Appreciation Day here at work and guess what we got as gifts? Towels! I'm bringing mine in! Oh,and if you ever see this Walking Eagle flying, you'll know that I finally learned how to fly simply by throwing myself at the ground and missing.

Speaking of DNA, I wonder if someone saved some of DNA's DNA for some future evil humorous use?

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: roopoo
Date: 25 May 01 - 02:47 AM

Well I am packing my towel today (Friday), and tomorrow I am off to...Belgium! Honest!

Andrea

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: jeffp
Date: 25 May 01 - 09:29 AM

I have mine, too! I'm not going to Belgium, though.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 May 01 - 10:02 AM

I have mine, but I seem to be the only one here...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Burke
Date: 25 May 01 - 06:01 PM

I forgot to carry mine today.

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Amergin
Date: 25 May 01 - 06:04 PM

mines in my car....

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: SDShad
Date: 25 May 01 - 06:14 PM

Well, the stipulation is that one should always know where one's towel is, not that it should always be on or near one's person. There are any number of activities where continuing to hold on to one's towel is not at all helpful, but it's a good idea to know where said towel is when the activity is complete.

Shad

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Mudlark
Date: 25 May 01 - 07:26 PM

So this is Towel Day. I'm throwing mine in.....

Mudlark

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 May 01 - 12:02 PM

Well, I carried mine around, and at Fridays After 5 saw someone carrying his towel around, so I asked him if it was for Towel Day and got the strangestlook - he was on break from his job in the kitchen of a local restaurant...

Oh well...

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 May 01 - 12:06 PM

I had mine in my back pocket at my gig... and got a big round of applause when near the end of the night, I played Eric Idle's "Universe Song" as a tribute to DA... I couldn't think of one more fitting...

;-)

Subject: RE: Serious BS: Friday May 25 is Towel Day
From: lady penelope
Date: 26 May 01 - 12:27 PM

I hadn't a clue this was going on until after the event! Hey ho, I always know where my towel is!

TTFN M'lady P.