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Douglas Adams Remembered By Those Who Knew Him
John "Widgett" Robinson writes "IGN FilmForce tapped a bunch of folks who knew and worked with Douglas Adams, asking them to share some stories of their time with the man himself. They've posted the results as an article that includes responses from Pythoner Terry Jones, author Neil Gaiman, actor Stephen Fry, Rutle Neil Innes, zoologist Mark Carwardine, and Monkee Michael Nesmith. I've never heard any of these stories before, so the thing winds up being a unique tribute to a very cool frood."
Yeah, I'd love to have a bunch of my friends get together to remember me after I'm gone...just in time to hype a major new Hollywood Blockbuster.
...by those who did not know him.
You mean "froopy".
Clearly you do not know where your towel is.
Without a doubt, the funniest, and shortest comment was:
(Mr. Chapman could not be reached in time for deadline)
I believe Mr. Adams would be laughing could he be reached for comment....
Yes, yes it is an attempt at humor.
A few years back, the surviving Python members got together on the Tonight Show (IIRC). It was the first time they had been together in years. One of them held an urn holding Chapman's ashes, saying that it really was all of them together again.
Then, not long into the interview, someone dropped the urn and the ashes spilled everywhere. The Python guys went nuts, cleaning it up (one pulled out a dusbuster, while someone else swept the ash under a rug) and then everyone realized it was a joke.
If only we could all be remembered like that.
or a perfect time to publish an article.
It's called cross-promotion, and companies that are completely unaffiliated "cash in" on it all the time. You see, because of the publicity and marketing driven by the movie, there is presently a market of people interested in facts about Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide, British Comedy, Old Science Fiction, and who knows what else.
Any editor worth his salt would consider running stories that capitalize on that interest. The interest is bigger than it was two years ago, and bigger than it will be in six months. It would be idiotic not to run stories like this if you have access to them. It's not "disingenious", people want to read about things like this right now!
Also a question of who inspired Ford Prefect, it wasn't Eric Idle (as I'd guessed, from his minor involvement with the Pythons) but a college roommate, whose name he didn't give.
There's my minor nuggets.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Douglas Adams Remembered By Those Who Knew Him
Of course. He's not going to be remembered by those who knew nothing about him.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I saw Douglas Adams speak at Cambell Hall at UCSB a couple weeks before he died. He was a very friendly, funny guy who believed in embracing technology.
One example he told about was how 10 years ago, society's view of cell phones was that they were devices only bought by gabbers who liked to annoy other people. People had this viceral reaction when they saw a person with a cell phone, something like, "Oh God, that person thinks they are SO important, but they just look like an idiot gabbing away." His daughter (I think) told him one day, "Why should I use a phone with a cord when I can use a phone without a cord that I can take anywhere?" When Mr. Adams had this epiphany, he immediately went out and bought a cell phone.
This was an insightful story and really hit home because I was one of those people who had a very negative view of cell phones around 10 years ago, for no real reason other than they were new. Irony of all ironies though, Mr. Adams died on a treadmill (fake walking device) soon after.
... don't forget the towel day this year guys!
http://www.towelday.kojv.net/
chris
Adams did the closing keynote at the Apple Developer Conference in 1997. He told a great story about how Microsoft wanted his opinion as a writer on using the latest/greatest version of Word. He talked about how most word processors were not conducive to the writing process (cutting/pasting story snippets, notes in the margins, organizing plot outlines, etc). He tried to explain to the pointy heads in Redmond about the features that would turn Word into something that writers could use (as opposed to what business people use). The response he got is that it would be difficult to add those features because they wouldn't have enough key combos for all of them.
Two memorials by Richards Dawkins from 2001 are here ("a keening lament, written too soon to be balanced, too soon to be carefully thought through") and a eulogy here.
The latter piece includes this quote from Adams:
It's a reminder that the best way to remember Adams is to re-read what he wrote.
We erected a tribute page on our website in his honor:
http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/abs/douglasadams /
Two years later, we finally ran our Big Event, with Bill Nye the Science Guy and Dr. Jill Tarter of SETI fame. We opened with a dedication to Adams. Here are pictures from the event:
http://homepage.mac.com/uniace/PhotoAlbum21.html
The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy game is one of the best and most difficult text-mode adventure game ever written. It was co-written by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky (author of the famous Planetfall and Sorceror, among others).
t ml
The BBC has an interview with Meretzky about how his collaboration with Adams went, a great, long and detailed text, full of information. Now, that's good reporting!
Read it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/stevem.sh
I didn't know Douglas Adams, but I knew the guy who killed him.
Adams lived and worked out in Montecito, CA, right next to Santa Barbara where I live. At the time I worked out at a small gym called just "The Club" down on lower State Street. It was kind of a personal-trainer gym and most of the people who worked out there had trainers.
Three of the trainers decided to start their own private gym in Montecito, and one of them had Adams as a client. That was where he died.
Apparently the private gym didn't have defibrillator equipment, nor had these personal trainers had any classes in using that kind of equipment. Adams' unexpected heart attack didn't have to be fatal. As he lay gasping his last breaths at the foot of this trainer, a guy I had seen around The Club, the trainer just stood there staring helplessly, wondering what to do.
It's a sad story, and the lesson is, make sure your gym has defib equipment, and make sure the trainers know how to use it. It could save your life some day. Don't let yourself end up as another preventable tragedy like Douglas Adams.