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Happy Towel Day

Posted by samzenpus on from the wringing-out-the-wit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "While Douglas Adams continues his attempt to set a new record for the longest extended lunch break, geeks all over the universe pay tribute to the beloved author by celebrating the tenth edition of Towel Day. Towel Day is more alive than ever. This year Richard Dawkins, one of Adams' best friends, has tweeted a Towel Day reminder to his numerous followers. The CERN Bulletin has published an article on Towel Day. There has been TV coverage and there will be a radio interview. The Military Republic of the Deltan Imperium, a newly formed micronation, has recognized Towel Day as an official holiday. In Hungary several hundreds of hitchhiker fans want to have a picnic together in a park. And there's a concert, a free downloadable nerdrap album, a free game being released, the list goes on and on."

11 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Don't forget.... by blankoboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    ....to bring one!

    1. Re:Don't forget.... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Informative

      I always bring mine but I've forgotten why now.

      "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 mini raft 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 to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); 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 hitch hiker 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."

      Stolen (well, copied really... it's not missing or anything) from The Towel Wiki.

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. Re:I missed my chance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't panic!

  3. towelie says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you wanna get high???

  4. Re:Idle's the right place for this... by geekoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks for letting everyone know that you're not a frood, AND you don't even know where your towel is.

    Belgium!

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Dawkins by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but I don't believe that Richard Dawkins exists.

    <grin>

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    Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
  6. Re:Idle's the right place for this... by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    especially since Richard Dawkins is mentioned.

    Awwwww. Poor baby. Did he make fun of your imaginary friend?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  7. Re:Idle's the right place for this... by uglyduckling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If, as a non-stamp collector, you invested considerable amounts of time in investigating stamp collecting, try to find flaws in the activities of stamp collectors, holding meetings to espouse the value of not collecting stamps, constructing straw-man arguments to illustrate the futility of stamp collecting, trying to assert that the bad behaviour of a given stamp collector ought to cause the whole of philately to be outlawed, wrote several books asserting that the possibility that a letter could be sent without requiring a stamp 'proves' that stamps do not in fact exist, etc., etc., etc., then - yes - I would describe your 'not collecting stamps' as a hobby, if not an obsession.

  8. Re:Idle's the right place for this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does this stamp collecting lead to wars, genocide, terrorism, assaults on human rights, genital mutilation, suppression of women and suppression of free speech? Opposing that might be a good hobby then.

  9. Re:I missed my chance. by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Informative

    <cover style="font-size: large; font-family: friendly_letters;">DON'T PANIC!</cover>

    There, fixed that for you.

  10. Re:Idle's the right place for this... by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My neighbour has some sort of hippy spirituality thing going on. She does meditation, won't eat animals, all of that junk. I'm sure you are familar with the type.

    Religion can cause harm, but so can anything else that humans feel strongly about. My neighbour has not caused any harm with her own little brand of religion, so suggesting that those things be universally connected to religion seems to be in error.

    In other words, the existence of atrocities committed by religion does not indicate all religions cause atrocities.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)