Don't Panic! But remember your towel the 25th
“One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphood was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn’t understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so—but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence, the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Groups in countries around the world are starting to gear up for Towel Day which has taken place every May 25th since 2001. Douglas Adams was an author who was born March 11, 1952 in Cambridge, England and died of a heart attack on May 11, 2001. His most celebrated work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series is the inspiration behind Towel Day.
To take part in this celebration you will need a towel. For those who can’t make the connection, Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “A towel… is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have… 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… wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat… Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”
Adams’ funeral service was held on May 16, 2001 in Santa Barbara, California. He was cremated with his own towel and his remains are buried in London, England’s Highgate Cemetery. A memorial service was held in London on September 17, 2001. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played I Wish You Were Here. Adams and Gilmour were close and Adams had played guitar on two songs during a Pink Floyd Concert in 1994. Gary Brooker singer in Procol Harum and a close friend also performed at the memorial and the inspiration for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe came from Procol Harum’s Grand Hotel. Adams’ memorial service was the first religious service broadcast live online by BBC.
https://mysendoff.com/2013/05/dont-panic-how-to-remember-douglas-adams-on-towel-day/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Will recitfy that soonest.
I like that Adams and Terry Practchett and Stephen Fry were friends, also.
The BBC radio drama of Hitchhiker's Guide was something I made sure my kids listened to, back when it came on.
The world is a bit dimmer after Douglas' passing.
