I would like to call the attention of my friendslist to the fact that THIS WEDNESDAY IS THE GLORIOUS 25th OF MAY, ALSO, TOWEL DAY.
The sheer collision of fandoms makes my head explode. But never mind.
The Glorious 25th of May is the date remembered in Terry Pratchett's excellent Night Watch, the day the barricades fell, etc etc. It's all about the lilac and the Revolution love: I am hoping to find lilac, or something lilac-y, to wear. Probably in my hair, if I manage to find a flower.
This mostly makes me want to listen to the
Les Miserables soundtrack a lot, and quote a lot of Pratchett.
One of the hardest lessons of young Sam's life had been finding out that the people in charge weren't in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.When he was a boy he'd (...) looked with patriotic pride at the paintings of famous cavalry charges, last stands and glorious victories. It had come as rather a shock, when he later began to participate in some of these, to find that the painters had unaccountably left out the instestines. Perhaps they just weren't very good at them.'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he [Reg] screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.“Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes.” He hated being thought of as one of those people that wore stupid ornamental armour. It was gilt by association.The Abbot of the History Monks (the Men In Saffron, No Such Monastery... they had many names)Towel Day, also coincidentally on the 25th of May, is the day Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans commemorate Douglas Adams' death in May 2001; it's also a bit of a nod to the series in general and the running towel theme.
Only one quote needed for this:
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker 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. You sass that hoopy Sam Vimes? Now there's a frood who really knows where is towel is.
Although he did lose his cigar case.
*has a geekgasm* love, all.
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( this one doesn't have a title. I may call it 'a mathematical ditty.' what do you think? ) editing suggestions, anyone? does it even make sense?
