1956firebird

Basically, carry a towel with you today to celebrate the life of Douglas Adams and the publication of his The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy started life as a science fiction sitcom on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. I did not pick up on it until it appeared as a TV series on BBC1 in 1981 but immediately became an avid fan, eagerly devouring each of the novels as they appeared (the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy in five parts). I love all of it, but for those who hate the 2005 film the problem there is the dolphin song and dance routine at the beginning. It may be part of the official canon, but skip it if possible. Without it, the rest of the movie is actually pretty good.

How important is Adam's work? Before Hitch-Hiker's, UK radio was in mono. As a direct result of Hitch-Hiker's, UK radio went over to stereo. The graphics for the TV series won awards and remain excellent. How influential is it? The Guide pervades our daily lives. I think almost everyone recognises the references "Don't Panic," "Babel Fish," "42" and many others in popular culture. And quite apart from the extraordinary story and poking fun at modern society, the science in Adams' work is also fiction, whereas in contrast, other science fiction writers try to make their science appear possible.

Why a towel? Here's what the Guide has to say:

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker 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-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 mind-bogglingly 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-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker 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 hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker 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.”

Don't Panic and put a fish in your ear.

Happy Towel Day! ❤️