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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?"
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Another h2g2.com entry, 42, explains that "forty-two" can be parsed "for-tea-two", tea for two, the answer to "What is a good attitude towards life?" which is purported to be the Ultimate Question.
Will I retire or break 10K?
In a similar vein, but what might be considered "prior art", the ancient Norse people had a particular type of mead which was supposed to convey wisdom regarding everything. Made of the blood of a man created by all the Norse gods to seal a peace treaty, "Kvasir", some dwarves killed him and mixed his blood with honey, making the "Mead of Poetry".
Probably not as tasty as Earl Grey, but claimed to be even more effective--after all, what's knowing everything if you can't write about it elegantly?
More on this here.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
What is this "tuh-eee" you speak of?
If you aren't able to stretch the budget to the Harrods blend, I'd strongly recommend the foil-packed Dilmah (100% ceylon) variety, which is about the freshest, and most fragrant I've been able to fine in Australia.
Ian
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.
This ties right in with the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Stonehenge, the value of pi, crop circles, that weird face on Mars, that strange 1x4x9 thing floating around Jupiter, and the fact that the sun and moon look the same size from the Earth! They're all connected, I tell you!
The coolest voice ever.
Google now has a sophisticated calculator
It really is quite good, and you can order some for yourself online at Harrods Web Site
Now we live in a Universe where the question AND the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything are both known.
The Universe was complicated enough... What have you DONE?
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.
Nah, I like this one better: Big Cup of Shut the #$@! up
I can see it now, on Kuro5hin. "How to brew the perfect cup of shut the #$@! up"...
Please help metamoderate.
Nice theory, but Douglas Adams has already revealed the origin of "42" as the answer to life, the universe and everything.
In one of the small tales in the Salmon of Doubt collection, he states something along the lines of that he was looking out into his garden, mentally shrugged and thought, "42 will do". A number out of a hat, more or less.
The fact that this particular variety of tea, with this particular number, may well have been a favourite of the late Mr. Adams, well, that's just another example of what happens when you mess around with improbability drives.
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
Welcome to Slashdot, where speculation makes it news... What the hell is this FOX or something?
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
How to brew the perfect cup of tea as specified by the Royal Society of Chemistry
link to the paper here [pdf]
who said this isn't news for nerds egh ?
Does this mean that Earl Grey is selling a substance that is almost, but not quite, completely unlike tea?
;-)
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. Rather like your almost, but not quite, entirely accurate quote.
The coolest voice ever.
I hate to ruin all the conspiracy theories, but Mr. Adams himself revealed the source of 42 years ago in alt.fan.douglas-adams.
"Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,
stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story."
If you've never read anything by Douglas Adams then may I suggest you start now ? You'll be sure to enjoy it, it's some of the finest English writing of by a man that died way too soon.
MP3 Search Engine
But note that there is prior art for authors of a twisted-logic bent to gravitate towards forty-two as a good arbitrary number. In particular, I refer to Lewis Carroll.
One instance doesn't count for a lot, so here's another.
One more, just to be sure.
Why is the number forty-two so over-represented? I have no idea, but I like to think of Douglas Adams as the Lewis Carroll of the 20th century.
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
A friend of mine was left with only a Knoppix CD for an operating system for about a week. And two things impressed her about Linux above anything else. First, the ease with which it was possible to rescue her files from a dead windows install. Second, the charm of teacooker. We can praise the power and versatility of gcc, or the eye candy of KDE forever, but I maintain that it's an operating system's native support for tea brewing applications that will win it success.
Everything will be taken away from you.
I guess it depends on whether Adams was drinking tea at the time?
I always thought that the whole reason for 42 was the fact that it was 101010 in binary.
As far as this particular blend of earl grey goes, I have not tried it yet. Being in america i've found Earl Grey is easy to find, where Ceylon without the bergamot oil is a pain in the tookus. I do enjoy earl grey though, iced with a touch of sugar. The best blend I can get local is actually Stash's with double bergamot oil.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
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.
You mean of the "long island iced" variety? I mean, I know spirits have always helped me when _I'm _ trying to get in touch with The Other Side...even when that Other Side" is just on the other end of a porcelain telephone.
What is this coughy you drink? It sounds harmful to one's health.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
To paraphrase Slartibartfast:
"These things will become clear to you," said the old man gently, "at least," he added with slight doubt in his voice, "clearer than they are at the moment."
Read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. In fact, expose yourself to any of Douglas Adams works in any medium and you will not regret it.
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.
Infact, England is just a function of earth that is calculating the ultimate question to the ultimate answer.
This subroutin called england() only purpose is to calculate the best blend of tea by method of brute force.
retep.
From Fit The Ninth (Radio series 2), in which our heroes have the chance to chew the fat with some old enemies and Arthur Dent has an unpleasant cup of tea.
Share and enjoy
TomV