My most recent tattoo. A co-worker suggested the books to me years ago (like 2009 ish). As usual they were much better than the movie that came out in 2005. That's how it goes of course. I did manage to get a hold of the BBC Radio show that was originally aired in 1978. I haven't focused myself enough to make the time to listen to it unfortunately. I have wanted to get something related to the series for some time now. It serves as a constant reminder to do exactly what it says. Things will work out.
When in doubt, remember this...
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 miniraft 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 avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of
Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you
can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a brush, but very 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 hitchhiker 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.
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