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How About A Cup Of The Answer To Everything?
Reiner Schulz writes "Douglas Adams admittedly was a big fan of Earl Grey tea. Here's his enlightening entry in H2G2 on the subject (pretty much straight out of The Salmon of Doubt). And those familiar w/ the Hitchhiker's Guide will remember the drink dispenser from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe which, trying to figure out how to brew the perfect cuppa, grabs all available computing resources on board a certain starship. What a coincidence then that one of the finest blends of Earl Grey on the planet in general and in the UK in particular is Harrods' Earl Grey, Blend No. ... 42 . It's a plausible theory as to the origin of the answer to everything, isn't it? Earl Grey addicts like myself will certainly agree (even though Douglas liked his w/ milk; I prefer lemon). So, what would be the question? Perhaps, how about a nice cup of tea?"
a little bit confusing. No offence to anyone.
The early loss of Douglas Adams is really a loss to the whole world. He really brought something special, and the world is a darker place without him. Read his books if you haven't, they are great.
DNA himself said that 42 was a joke, nothing more.
What I find amusing is that he probably did intend it as a joke, and probably meant nothing at all by it, but that hasn't stopped people from finding all kinds of interesting things in the number.
Though, much like 5/23 (The Law of Fives) if you look hard enough you're going to find patterns.
FNORD
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
It's called light-heartedness. If you had any sense of reality or a social conscience, you would realise this. Does it hurt to post a silly topic on a slow news day?
The idea, therefore, that he was regularly shopping at Harrods, a purveyor of exceedingly expensive goods, to get tea, strikes me as totally absurd. It's not as if you can't/couldn't get Earl Grey at the local Sainsbury (even back then in the late seventies, my dad drank it.)
This is an utterly bizarre theory. I don't believe it for a second.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
People gravitated around [Dirk], drawn in by the stories he denied about himself, but what the source of these stories might be, if not his own denials, was never entirely clear.
The tales had to do with the psychic powers that he'd supposedly inherited from his mothe'rs side of the family who he claimed, had lived at the smarter end of Transylvania. That is to say, he didn't make any such claim at all, and said it was the most absurd nonsense. He strenuously denied that there were bats of any kind at all in his family and threatened to sue anybody who put about such malicious fabrications, but he affected nevertheless to wear a large and flappy leather coat, and had one of those machines in his room which are supposed to help cure bad backs if you hang upside down from them. He would allow people to discover him hanging from this machine at all kinds of odd hours of the day, and more particularly of the night, expressly so that he could vigorously deny that it had any significance whatsoever.
By means of an ingenious series of strategically deployed denials of the most exciting and exotic things, he was able to create the myth that he was a psychic, mystic, telepathic, fey, clairvoyant, psychosassic vampire bat.
What did "psychosassic" mean?
It was his own word and he vigorously denied that it meant anything at all.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Earl Grey tea is just black tea flavored with Oil of Bergamot. The Bergamot is an Italian citrus fruit that is too sour to eat by itself, so it's grown for the oil instead.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Go to Marks and Spencer and buy a packet of Earl Grey tea.
starting to lose me here - Earl Grey is the insipid-as-hell tea preferred by 9 out of 10 feckless tea-poseurs.
Put a couple (or three, depending on the size of the pot) of tea bags into the pot.
tea bags??!! ok, lost me completely now
-and stuff asking the English on how to make tea, or even buying English (packaged, not grown) tea - the best tea comes from the country that invented it - China of course (good quality tea is also produced by Japan and Taiwan)
Real quality Chinese tea, mostly of the green or oolong variety, is a revelation. It will cost you a fair bit more than grotty tea-bags made with black tea dust and various synthetic flavourings but it is actually very good value for money compared to other connoisseur products such as fine wine or good whisky.
If you're interested here's a site (one of many) to clue you in.
Thats actually merely a coincidence.
When using the proper numbering system, the product of any two numbers can be any given number.
The reason the 'Earth' computer came up with the question 'What do you get when you multiply 6 times 9' is because the Golgafrinchans (sp?) jumped in and screwed up the works.
Think about what happens when you throw and processor into a board made to support a completely different architecture (say throw an intel chip into an AS/400).
You may get it to look like its working, but you probably wont get the answer (or question) you are looking for.
I'm a Yorkshire (tea) man myself. I have my mum send a care package once a quarter with Yorkshire tea, Burbon Creams and McVitties Digestives.
Heaven!
Anyone who is a parent knows that the first thing you do when your baby is born is to book the grandparents (as baby-sitters) six weeks in advance (42 days/nights) so you can have the house to yourselves.
heh. Works for me.
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
It could indeed be the origin of the number, but the point of the whole thing was this:
The answer is useless without knowing how to ask the question. The meaning of life, the universe and everything is the pursuit of the answer, not the answer itself.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. All other definitions are of course only attempts to explain this phenomenon.
Stories of this sort have always been allowed on Slashdot. However most ./ers don't have the creativity or imiganition to post them so we don't see them here very often. I'm sure with continued heckling like yours the actual thoughtfull stories (instead of, here's a link, here's my kneejerk reaction) will continue to move over to k5 where we don't have as much problem with people unable to think without a link.
Little Brother, watching the watchers
The British know more about tea than anyone. Just because the Chinese found it and never developed it does not mean that their version is perfect, just primative.
Here is a little hint: tea is to Eastern culture as wine is to Western culture.
Yes: pretentious bullshitting designed for the impressing of the foolish and the self-comfort of the hopelessly shallow.
Earl Grey is piss, though.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
If God (or, for that matter, any god) wants to put an idea in somebody's head, why would the chosen vessel of this wisdom need to believe in Him for that to happen?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
You have taste. Yorkshire Gold or Red? And let's not forget the Australian contribution, the Tim Tam. Bite off both ends close to the edge, stick one end in mouth, stick other end in tea and inhale tea through Tim Tam. If the biscuit falls apart before you tip your head up and let the whole mess fall in your mouth you inhaled too long, try again.
(I like the Marks & Spencer teas also)
Somebody should simply have programmed the computer with ISO 3103, Method for preparation of a liquor of tea for use in sensory tests; or with BS 6008, How to make a standard cup of tea. See the Jargon File.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com