The creator of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series would have been 52 years old on Saturday the 11th.
100 thoughts on “Happy Birthday, Douglas Adams!”
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The creator of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series would have been 52 years old on Saturday the 11th.
Comments are closed.
w00t! WE LOVE YOU DOUGLAS ADAMS!
Froodiest guy…erm…dead.
ok nobody wrote on this post and im bored so GO DOUGLAS ADAMS!!!!!\
ok im done now
but i want to see how many threads i can post on before i have to get off the computer
3 post?
yay!!!!! Third post!!!
Hooray!! GO DOUGLAS ADAMS!!! Thank you for providing us with the most comprhensible explanation of the meaning of life yet to be established!
Unfortunately dead…
But awesome anyways!
Why did he die so young?
Happy birthday, Douglas! So sad I was never able to so much as email you, but so happy that I’ve been able to get to know you through your writing.
Incidentally, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans might be interested to know that the radio series is much better than the books — in my opinion, at least.
Can I encourage everyone to check out h2g2, the real Hitchhiker’s Guide on the web? Just do a search for “h2g2” and you’ll find it. You might find me, too.
Zallie, I didn’t see your post there. DNA (his initials, and a fun way to refer to him) died from a heart attack while exercising at a gym in Santa Barbara on … *looks it up* 11 May, 2001. 11 May is now Towel Day — so lift your towels in salute to the great Douglas Noel Adams!
Oh, that’s really awful.
What a dreadful way to die.
EMR (8),
I googled “Towel Day” and learned that it’s actually May 25. Apparently when Douglas Adams died, it took his fans two weeks to find out and organize a commemoration. (You all may triple-check me and correct me if I’m wrong.)
Awwwwwww………… you make me sad………. i will suck on my towel to make me happy again……. *sucksuck*
*thinks of really bad pun* Towel day being the day when Douglas Adams finally threw in the towel?
Ahahaha….ha…… I amuse myself.
Anyways. Happy birthday, pal. We miss you.
Poor Douglas Adams. *snifflesniffle* Happy birthday anyway!
Queenie J said Towel Day was March 25 on the random thread.
42. 42. 42. 10-4 for Doug.
Gosh, I didn’t know he was that young when he died. And he would have had some great noveling years ahead of him too. What a shame. Well, happy birthday anyway, frood of froods! I can’t believe queen j. hasn’t posted here yet. Has anyone ever made an actual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? It wouldn’t be too hard, I wouldn’t think. It would be like one of those palm top dictionaries, except it would say Don’t Panic in large, friendly letters and have entries on babel fish and stuff. Okay, so it would take some work to write up all the entries, but it wouldn’t be beyond the skill of some rabid fan. *foams at mouth*
Has anyone read the Dirk Gently books? They’re really funny. In one part of one of them, someone gets turned into a coke machine.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday to yooooooouuuu
Happy Biiiiiiirrrrrrrthhhhh-*is pied*
I canot find the book So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish anywhere. Please excuse me while i cry. *snifsob*
Did the other characters buy Coke from him?
Dirk Gently is one of my heroes because he. As are Psmith, Sid Vicious and Douglas Adams. Towel Day is the 25th, but is being celebrated on the 23rd by me at my school to escape the bureaucratic confines of Spring Break. Moose, you’re going to have to write the actual guide, I can help if you want me to, but the major point is that no one’s done it yet. I have friends with “42” on their yamakas and tarpins (whatever the Sikh ceremonial dagger is called, no offense meant) and I am waving a towel around today.
echomikeromeo, did you have to rub it in? I mean, really…
Violetfire! Read The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul to answer that question. I liked Neil, the drummer neighbor who played Siegfried to show that he could. I tried to do that on piano, but it didn’t work.
hitchiker’s guide to the galaxy is the best trilogy ever… the movie totally sucked though. it’s just not a movie book. you can’t go into something about matresses because you feel like it in hollywood. also, they messed up ZB’s two heads. what was that?
Carey Kirkpatrick took Douglas’s original script after he died and messed it up. I read the original-it’s HILARIOUS. I nearly died laughing. However, Kirkpatrick and the movie directors killed the script. I thought Slartibartfast was pretty good. Hopefully someone, possibly a MP, will step in on the other movies before the good name of Hitchhiker’s is ruined for ever. Sad thort.
I’ve only read the first book, so I don’t know the meaning of life yet. But it was the most ingenious thing I’ve ever read. I’m doing a book report on the first book in a couple of weeks. It will be hard to explain it. OH boy.
The new movie wasnt so good, but I like the old BBC tv special. That one got Zaphod’s heads right, even if one of them was ridiculously fake. But on the other hand, maybe that was what made it good.
the sikh dagger is a kirpan. It’s a ceremonial sword that symbolizes that a Sikh is always ready to defend the opressed.
If you consider that each version of the HGttG is different, from radio to books to BBC special to Hollywood movie, the movie is actually alright. They did a better job than any book to movie adaptation crew of the last 30 years. It made a fine addition to the compiled works.
queen j (23)-where’s the original script? Is it online? Must read…
Yeah wher can we find it? Will the GAPA allow a link so we can see one of D.A.’s masterpeices? Please?
YAY! I just got cast as Peter Pan
that has nothing to do with Douglas Adams…….sorry
I love that series!!! How could I not know? Someone call me stupid, please.
30- cool
31- Fine. You’re stupid.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27- I agree, I guess. I mean, there were plenty of parts I didn’t like about the movies, but there were some bits that were fun. Like the beginning song with the dolphins, and the animated bits. I thought the HG2G looked way to hi-tech. Its better as big chunky plastic calculator sort of thing. On the other hand, I thought Ford Prefect was well cast.
The love story didnt fit in. It was like… drawing stick figures on a master piece painting with a sharpie. It was too manufactured, especially since a lot of time DNA pokes fun at love through out the books. But over all, I enjoyed it.
Just for the record, Im a terrible waffler. Im probably the most indecisive person I know, so if I seem like a change opinions a lot, it’s cause I like to argue with myself.
31- Yay! An Excuse! Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid.
Just kidding. I never know these kind of things either.
I haven’t seen the movie. Meh.
Happy birthday, Douglas Adams. You will be sorely missed.
What’s forty two sup–oh yeah, never mind. It just came to me. the meaning of, well I wont spoil it for you people who haven’t read it yet.
That’s not the point. The point is, what’s the question?
How many roads must a man walk down?
42.
WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVIENENCE.
Clara (3),
Congratulations! Why don’t you write more about Peter Pan on Mews Nuse? For starters, is it a musical production, the original play, or an adaptation?
The only thing I liked about the movie was the yarn-barfing Authur and the dolphins. I thought the Ford dude looked good as Ford, but he sounded so bored as Ford. I mean, you could hardly even tell what he was saying. Zaphod was cast pretty well, I guess. He was obnoxious enough anyway.
I think they could have done better casting. It was a 60 million dollar movie, anyway. I think the series is near-impossible to translate into a film, as lots of the jokes come from subtle wordplay and stuff.
lucky, you got comment 42!
Ooooh, how special! *drips sarcasm*
Well, somebody’s jealous (lol vf XD)
I’m sure you are too. *drips water because she just washed her hands after going potty*
I’m almost tempted to say I like Dirk Gently better than Hitchhiker’s, if Hitchhiker’s weren’t so classic. But Hitchhiker’s really works best in radio, I find.
I stand corrected on the date of Towel Day, though a recent consortium on h2g2 failed to agree on the day of Towel Day — and we celebrate it every year!
I have to agree with Queen Julietaini and Trillian about the movie. It did have some brilliant bits, but it was all too obvious which bits were DNA’s and which were Kirkpatrick’s. (Though DNA can write a love story — look at Arthur and Fenchurch.) Rather like the new movie version of Importance of Being Earnest (great play!) and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, Hitchhiker’s has been dumbed down and un-DNA-ed in the attempt to appeal to the American audience.
I think it’s worth also celebrating some of DNA’s other interests — his love of Apple computers, for example, and Darwinian science. Oh, and Bach.
I agree with you; the Trillian-Arthur relationship was over-emphasized and also sappy. And Kirkpatrick over-americanized a British thing. You just can’t do that. It doesn’t work. I think the overall problem about the film is that it is over marketalized *checks dictionary.com to check validity of word* to fit American audiences. And they put too much emphasis on the not-so-important stuff that current films make, such as romance and heroism. But there are some good parts, such as the announcement of the meaning of life by Deep Thought. And the special effects were okay.
so, when is towel day, really?
Towel Day is March 25. OK? OK. Ask the Austrians, it’s a national holiday in Innsbruck. I kid you not. Serious as a heart attack.
DNA also loved P.G. Wodehouse. I have plotted my book schedule out so I will finish reading all of Wodehouse on March 24th. I liked the recent version of The Importance of Being Earnest, with Reese Witherspoon (who looked too modern) and Judi Dench (whom I love!) and Colin Firth. It kept most of the best lines. Now, if somebody will do An Ideal Husband or Lady Windermere’s Fan, we might get somewhere. Speaking of which, there’s a fan company actually called Windermere. Did you know that? I didn’t until today. I turned on the fan in Spanish and there it was, Windermere. No one else understood the joke, but there you go.
The prunes are revolting.
March 25, though I don’t know quite why.
Exactly right about the American audiences thing: The Hitchhikers series is characteristicly British humor; it’s hard for the American public to apprectiate it, but it didnt work when Kirkpatrick tried to make it so that Americans could relate to.
echomikeromeo has a point about celebrating DNA’s other interests. You can see how his interests, personality and the works that came out of these reflect eachother. It that makes any sense.
As a proud member of the “American public” I would like to say that I very much appreciate the Hitchhikers series. It was not the public who it was dumbed down for, it was the Hollywood executives. If you want to celebrate DNA’s other works, read The Salmon of Doubt and Last Chance to See.
51-the GAPA said May 25 (#10) Are you guys sure??? (What about, i’m not sure. This is all so confuzzling…)
I just googled “Towel Day” and “May 25” and got more than 50,000 hits. Then I tried “Towel Day” and “March 25” and got 122, most of which were calendars that listed Towel Day on May 25 and other events on March 25. I think it’s safe to say that it’s May 25. (One site said it was the last Friday in May, but I suspect that system has been superseded.)
Tank yew GAPA!
Awww…that means my cousins won’t be here for towel day.
Oh well…
But it’s on a thursday so i can freak out everybody at skool! Yes!
Let’s have two Towel Days! One on March 25th and one on May 25th. Solutions for everybody!
Ebeth, are you having withdrawal symptoms about the lurking? Or are you all right?
One of the best things that ever happened to science fantasy is DNA. I haven’t seen the movie, but the old radio scripts are good. I just got the big black holy book containing the entire series! Yah! Oh, and Queen Julietaini, you can’t have two Towel Days! It’s like haveing two birthdays or two 4th of July’s. It can’t be done, it’s just too wierd. It would be fun, yes, but not the same. Like last year, my stupid math teacher wouldn’t celebrate Pi Day of March 14th. Instead we celebrated it on May 21st. How stupid is that? Let me tell you, it is quite stupid. There was no spirt at all, it was just kind of like, yah, Pi Day was a couple months ago but were just getting around to celebrate it now, so what? It wasn’t the same.
GAPA
#40
It’s a musical
Let’s have Kiadorian Towel Day, which is March 25, and Earth Towel Day, which is May 25. April 25 is Earth Day on Earth. Duh. Everyone happy? Bevvie (may I call you Bevvie? Thank you), I have the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide too. I thought the gilt pages were a nice touch. And I have a friend who has a 42 symbol on his yammaka. I think HG2G is more of a cult than anything else.
Just nod, OK?
Ok?, did I nod,or did I shake my head? Hey, weren’t you looking. OH, sorry. I nodded, though
By the way, what am I nodding for?
I thought Earth Day was April 22…. sorry about the March/May thing, i got sidetracked. On Towel Day I’ll bring a towel to school and carry it around with me everywhere, and when people ask me why I’ll just smile and say it’s Towel Day. That’ll confuse ’em!
Iccckkk… the recent Importance was just *weird*. Did anyone see the carriage driving on the right side of the road?
Honestly, my English class did a version that I think was better (but then, I made cucumber sandwiches for the occasion).
Douglas Noel Adams (DNA,) bless his atheist soul, was THE best comedy science fiction writer EVER, so British and pro-tea and everything. I’ve read his books like three times or something. What did he die of?
I’m reading a post-humous collection of his smaller speeches, stories, and various faxes, and I think he was planning to make a sixth Hitchhiker’s book. sniff…I would have loved to have read it, pardon my have been grammar.
He knew where his towel was.
Happy birthday!
67-i think i’ve read that…don’t remember what it’s called though…is that the one with the gengis khan sketch in it?
Hey people, i finally convinced somebody to celebrate towel day with me! Emily. She has a completely diff schedule, and she doesn’t eat lunch with us, so i hardly ever see her but we had an extended study hall cuz we didn’t feel like going to the talent show, so we were really bored and being random and started talking about h2g2 and i told her about towel day and she said she’d do it. Yay! Now we can team up and attack everybody else.
lol
I’m in!
DNA died in a gym in Santa Barbara of a heart attack. I can’t talk about it any more. *cries on qwerty keyboard*
I have a copy of The Salmon of Doubt that has been through so much with me, it’s like having an old friend. I know this sounds corny, but it’s what I reach for when I’m upset. I did nothing but cry the day he died. I was a total wreck, and always am on May 11. It’s too painful to discuss. HG2G has been elevated to cult status. When idiot people bring up the movie I feel like a Christian fundamentalist confronted with Life of Brian, all self-righteous and morally insulted.
Ah yes. Salmon of Doubt, that’s it.
Most of my geeky friends only ever bring up the movie in a storm of righteous anger, so i’m spared that pain.
I don’t ever bring up the movie. Have you read The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul?
i just read the first bokk!
totally froody!!!!!
i wanna read the rest!
42!!!!!!!
The movie was bad It didnt follow the book at all!
The books are wonderful. If you haven’t read them ALL you should
When in dout the answer is 42!!!
whos u peoples favorite characters?
The movie’s good as a movie but it doesnt go with book.
The movie’s not supposed to follow the books, nor is the radio series nor the tv series nor any of the other incarnations. I agree with Sir Penguin, though — it’s a not-bad movie but not quite in the spirit of DNA.
That doesn’t sound weird or corny or anything, Julietani. Let’s just say I understand, I think. I know I’ve said this before, but you should really check out the real-life version of the Guide — google h2g2 and you should be able to find it.
I do check out the real-life version of h2g2, and I like it a lot. I lurk on it, though, a little ashamed of my bad writing skills. Look at my short story on the ‘Writing’ thread. It pales in comparison. The reason the movie is so bad is that Carey Kirkpatrick messed up DNA’s original script. If DNA had been there, I have no doubt our hero would have socked Kirkpatrick past Jaglan Beta. Far past. However, we are left to bungle along without DNA to guide us. My favorite DNA character is Dirk Gently (Svlad Cjelli) because he’s a misunderstood, unorganized genius. But my favorite HG2G character is Marvin, though Zaphod Beeblebrox has some very good lines.
I think most of the comedy in HG2G comes from Arthur losing everything that he knows (Earth), going with Ford Prefect, and still acting like a pigheaded Little Englander, which he is, rather than anything else. By Mostly Harmless Arthur’s wised up a lot, and it’s fun to watch him go back to his home planet that way. DNA put a wide variety of characters in a string of situations they were completely uncomfortable with and then proceeded to ridicule everyone’s heads off in the process. Ah, joy. Did you know the radio series has been translated into Spanish?
I just finished doing a book report on the first in teh trilogy. It’s REEEEEAAAALLLLLLYYYYY hard to explain some of that stuff.
Plus, Zaphod Breeblebox in the movie wasn’t really right.
It’s unexplainable. Doing a book report on something as sacrosanct as HG2G is utter calumny. Any teacher requiring such a thing should be hung, shot, drawn, and quartered, and the student should apologize. And you can’t explain HG2G. It’s a farce. Don’t try to do it with Dirk Gently, whatever you do.
I know. It’s all too complicated. I mean, the whole thing with the matresses? And the Outside the Asylum guy in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish?
So long and thanks for all the fish
So long and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all
But oh dear
You may not share our intellect
Which might explain your disrespect
For all the natural wonders that
Grow around you
So long so long and thanks
For all the fish
The world’s about to be destroyed
There’s no point getting all annoyed
Lie back and let the planet
Dissolve around you
Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots
And your pregnant women
So long so long so long so long so long so long
So long so long so long so long so long so long
So long so long and thanks
For all the fish
If I had just one last wish
I would like a tasty fish
If we could just change one thing
We would all have lungs to sing
Come one and all
Man and mammal
Side by side in
Life’s great gene pool
Ooh ooh
Ah ah ah
So long so long so long so long so long so long
So long so long so long so long so long so long
So long so long and thanks
For all the fish!
And we would like to thank Voiletfire for the amazing rendion of So Long And Thanks For All The Fish. (not sarcastic)
#81 they most certaintly did not get Zaphod Breeblebox right. His second head was in the wrong place!!!
And for the non-excistant record , i think that Zaphod Breeblebox is a compleate idiot will still be a geinious (how is that spelled?)
I have also did a *report* on “The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide” volume that I have. I did it on the smallest sheet of lined paper that I could find and wrote the title and one sentence about each peice. Well maybe two or three sentences since there was only five stories and i had to use both sides of the page. The teacher asked me if she was supposed to grade it.
-sighs- I just found this thread. I…I…
-bursts into tears- I hope that gym burned down. Pointless as that would be. Many things in this universe are pointless though. Even better, it should be paved over to become a bypass. Or perhaps a monument…oh my…a monument…with a giant, doubtful salmon on it. And “Don’t Panic” engraved on the side. And a monastery devoted to the quiet studious studying of infinate improbability. And my god I need counseling for this I believe.
I think we also need a monument to the bowl of petunias.
…I’m going through panic mode, I’m sorry for the nonsense I wrote up there. I really DO like the idea of a monument though.
86- Huh? Whatter you upset about? Did i miss somthing again?
It’s OK, Lyra. I feel all faint and queasy when I think about how Bop Ad is gone too. A few concerned people tried to lynch the trainer who was supposedly responsible for the Calamity That Shocked The Entire Universe, but he got out in time and I think he only broke his skull or something. A monument would be a voonderful idea. Hmm. Maybe a salmon wearing a towel saying “Don’t Panic” with ’42’ on the base? And a bowl of petunias on the thing. Live petunias.
happy bday douglas! 10 years ago you would’ve been 42 heehee.
luv and a sperm whale
p.s. about the monument, someone would need to replace the petunias alot (tedious), why not have a stone bowl of petunias?
Hm, that’s a good idea, trinity.
I drew The Monument in skool today. It was quite magnificent. I just need my art teacher to show me how to cast bronze…my english teacher said she would be glad to have The Monument in her classroom. w00t!
How about a whale too? I mean, he was sadder than the petunias.
Oh, the poor whale. -sighs- So new into the world, with its life ended so fast, simply a breath on the wind. -whips out a hankie and blows her nose dramatically- AH! ’tis terrible.
This monument should be placed next to a small, funny looking cabin on a cliff next to the shore in England.
xD That would be so funny…very nice.
I think the statue should be a whale hugging the Earth (I wonder if it will be friends with me?)
Great idea!
Wow, that is another good idea. Man…I’ma have to redraw the whole thing…any other artists please take a stab at it? Don’t ask me why, but you do get a lot of weird looks from jerks who are staring over your shoulder while you sketch.
How about the Earth beigh hugged by a whale, but a small one, and a towel underneath it, with a bowl of petunias next to it and 42 in big block letters somewhere and a salmon sitting on top of the earth while drinking tea?
I love Douglas Adams. His books are hil-arious. I don’t see how this relates to the comment above but, who cares. I really don’t. I chose this blog on a whim because my friends forced me. I chose this blog cause I like the Hitchhiker’s Guide. I’m almost finished with Life the Universe and Everything and the whole do with Agrajag is some funny stuff. Maybe it’s just the whole death aspect. Whatever.
Yeah. I love his humor. I never get tired of those books.