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It's Towel Day! A SW Tribute to Douglas Adams

by Stephen Bianchini

Douglas Adams is the English author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy. Towel Day is celebrated since 2001 – the year of Adams’ death – on May, 25 as a tribute to him.

On May 25 all Douglas’ fans carry a towel with them. But why a towel? This comes from the book, obviously, which states: “A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, one of the most influential SF books ever, is also quite famous for its quotes – here is a taste of some (really) famous ones.


“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

MonkeyRoom-Leaderboard_12
“Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.”

“My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre,” Ford muttered to himself, “and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes.”

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.”

“It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

If you want to know more about Douglas Adams, Towel Day and The Guide, have a look at the site of ZZ9 (Plural Z Alpha), a club for fans of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” created by Douglas Adams.
Happy Towel Day to everyone!
May 25, 2014By Stephen P. Bianchini

About the author

Stephen P. Bianchini is a statistician and a social scientist working in higher education. Based in rainy UK. Passionate about astrophysics, space security, SF and technical diving. Blog: http://earthianhivemind.net/ Twitter: @SPBianchini

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  • NJ

    Some nice quotations here! Marvellous!

    PS: I think you mean ‘states rather than ‘starts’ (in your sentence that begins ‘This comes from the book’. Feel free to delete this nit-pick of mine!

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