GOOD MORNING VIETJAN - MY BOBBY FLIES OVER THE OCEAN - 2012 INTERNATIONAL TOWEL DAY
PROUDLY FLY THE TOWEL!!
On the flight over to Vietnam from Melbourne, (April, 2012) knowing that International Towel Day was coming up, I planned ahead to take a picture cheerfully declaring that like all good Galactic Hitch-Hikers I jolly well KNOW WHERE MY TOWEL IS !!
Every year on May 25th fans of the late Science Fiction author Douglas Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) celebrate his life and works by referencing the iconic indispensible, all purpose rectangular length of fabric as featured in that justly renowned epic of comedic Science Fiction, "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy".
My Towely, by the way, was given to me on the occasion of my interview with Robbie Stamp, producer of the 2005 film adaptation of H2G2
Here is what the Guide has to say about towels and towel based activities:
"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 vapours; 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 (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); 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 hitchhiker 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.
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.)"
—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
And yeah, I've Gimped in a bit of gltiz and glam to the picture, (Only yer actual, genuine digital enhancement!) wanna make something of it? You know the drill, march ten paces, turn, and flick your towel!
GOOD MORNING VIETJAN - MY BOBBY FLIES OVER THE OCEAN - 2012 INTERNATIONAL TOWEL DAY
PROUDLY FLY THE TOWEL!!
On the flight over to Vietnam from Melbourne, (April, 2012) knowing that International Towel Day was coming up, I planned ahead to take a picture cheerfully declaring that like all good Galactic Hitch-Hikers I jolly well KNOW WHERE MY TOWEL IS !!
Every year on May 25th fans of the late Science Fiction author Douglas Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) celebrate his life and works by referencing the iconic indispensible, all purpose rectangular length of fabric as featured in that justly renowned epic of comedic Science Fiction, "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy".
My Towely, by the way, was given to me on the occasion of my interview with Robbie Stamp, producer of the 2005 film adaptation of H2G2
Here is what the Guide has to say about towels and towel based activities:
"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 vapours; 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 (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); 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 hitchhiker 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.
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.)"
—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
And yeah, I've Gimped in a bit of gltiz and glam to the picture, (Only yer actual, genuine digital enhancement!) wanna make something of it? You know the drill, march ten paces, turn, and flick your towel!