November
Monday 25 May 2009 photo 1/1
|
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing aninterstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value.You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the coldmoons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sandedbeaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleepunder it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world ofKakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth;wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to wardoff noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast ofTraal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if youcan't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergenciesas a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if itstill seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For somereason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhikerhas his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also inpossession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask,compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suitetc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhikerany of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker mightaccidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man whocan hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it,struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where histowel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy."
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For somereason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhikerhas his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also inpossession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask,compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suitetc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhikerany of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker mightaccidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man whocan hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it,struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where histowel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy."
Comment the photo
3 comments on this photo
Directlink:
http://dayviews.com/icametodance/318975435/
Visa toppen
Show footer