Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Page (H2G2)

May 25th is Towel Day! www.towelday.org/

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker 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 vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft 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 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 brush, but very 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: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, 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 hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker 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 know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

After publishing the Dirk Gently Holistic Detective books, he released the final chapter in the Hitchhiker's Guide - "Mostly Harmless".

To learn more about Douglas Adams visit his site: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Web

The British phenomenon by Douglas Adams. The radio broadcasts, the TV series, the books, the audio books, and the comic books..

Midi Themes:

H2G2 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Theme (15k)

Wav Soundbytes:

H2G2 Theme (194k)

These pains in my diodes (52k)

It's kinda like being drunk (702k)

About 12 minutes (68k)

Airlock (102k)

You should be in pictures (49k)

Button (56k)

Brain the size of a planet (81k)

Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust (87k)

Men were men (103k)

We're Safe (113k)

Slartibartfast (285k)

We're trapped now aren't we? (372k)

The Zaphod (251k)

Links:

Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy site on the BBC! Cult H2G2. A very cool site!

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Web Don't Panic! Douglas Adams is here to straighten out this confusing 'web-thing'. (I am Researcher Steed - go figure!) Sign up, contribute Guide information, and start Hitchhiking the Web! And remember, don't panic!

While you are there, check out some interesting articles: Handy Latin Phrases and Being Pretentious.

Check the Wikipedia listing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H2g2.
 

Visit the Douglas Adams page - DNA The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Did H2G2 ever Jump the Shark? Give them your opinion and search for other shows!

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy WWW Links

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Home Page of Jean-Paul Davis

Webrings:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Ring zaphod - with Douglas Adams related web sites

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Ring hhgttg - with Douglas Adams related web sites

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Ring hitchhiker - with Douglas Adams related web sites

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the Sunday morning paper, dated May 13, 2001, I was saddened to find the following news clipping: "Hitchhiker's Guide" author dead at 49 - AP - Los Angeles (May 11,2001)

Douglas Adams, whose cult science fiction comedy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" drew millions of fans and spawned a mini-industry, has died at age 49.

The British-born Adams died Friday of an apparent heart attack in Santa Barbara, California, a family friend, Elizabeth Gibson, said Saturday. She said Adams collapsed while working out at a gym.

"He was not ill," Gibson said. "This was completely unexpected."

The "Hitchhiker's Guide", which began as a British Broadcasting Corporation radio series in 1978, is a satirical adventure about a group of interplanetary travelers.

It was turned into a book, which sold 14 million copies around the world, and later into a TV series.

The book was followed by several sequels, including "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", "Life, the Universe and Everything", and "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish".

H2G2 the Movie (Coming out April 29, 2005!):

R. Cal Westray, Jr.
Revised: May 25, 2010.