To replace (the still sorely neglected - Mothman, did you ever go take a look at this one? It was "your" story!) I-Spy, I nominate The Question to the Ultimate Answer - in which I solve the great riddle of Douglas Adams's Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy books. Really. Go check it out.
I just put another of these 'golden oldie' recommendations up over on the Barstool too, if you're interested.
And do, please, leave more contributions to the Possible Band Names competition (and have a go also at the not-so-fiendishly difficult What Films Am I Referencing Here? sub-competition).
11 comments:
Oh no. A sure sign that I've been gone too long: I actually don't understand this post. Is it a suggestion to read Hitchhiker's Guide? Is it an introduction to the fact that you're going to find a new ultimate answer? Are you going to discuss the previous answer (42)? I clicked the link and I found another link to a Haggar cartoon description. I don't understand, Froog! Brain... dissolving... fizzy...like ginger ale.
um, i don't understand either. I re-read the I Spy post... still good stuff, even reading it over a year later.... but where does the Ultimate Answer fit in? it's 42 or something like that, right?
when I get back to the Jing we should throw together a stage performance of Hitchhiker's...you could be Arthur. I know you feel a stronger connection to the Robot, but....
'Froog the Paranoid Android'? I think not... I always saw him as more of a Zaphod Beeblebrox type myself :-)
OMG and Tulsa - the reference was to what has replaced 'Zelig' and 'I Spy' in the "Pick of the Month" sidebar in 'Froogville' - ie "The Question to the Ultimate Answer".
I had forgotten about the egregious (indeed, gay and alcoholic) Mr. Vincent and his 'final' interview with MI6. The latter, on the basis of interviewing all of his friends (who lied through their teeth in standard Oxford fashion)as part of 'positive vetting' concluded that he was a 'sound chap' and fit to be entrusted with the keys to the realm. Decent of him to own up really - I would have thought that such honesty should not have gone unrewarded....
Of course Philby, Burgess and McLean WERE all bloody 'Tabs...
Thanks for the explanation, Mothman. I had thought it was clear enough - especially for regular readers.
However, there was supposed to be a link embedded in the post as well, and it 'failed' for some mysterious Blogger-being-crap reason. I have restored it now. Apologies.
aha, thanks mothman and apologies froog... in our defense, OMG has had her fingers busy in a bowl of rice and I have had mine in a plate of bbq for an unusually long time. neither wanted to mess up the keyboard with that sticky mess.
Beeblebrox.... hmmm (tilts head to side and hums thoughtfully)
Ah, if we're playing the "Which character from HHGG would you be?" game.... I think I'd go for Ford, on a good day; and Agrajag, on a bad one.
Of course, there are days in China when I just feel like Wowbagger.
But Douglas Adams already gave us the God's telephone number answer:
[wikipedia] In a 2005 article for the magazine TV Zone, Lance Parkin noted that Majikthise might have accidentally hit upon the Question the day Deep Thought was activated. "I mean what's the use of our sitting up half the night arguing that there may or may not be a God if this machine only goes and gives us his bleeding phone number the next morning?". God's phone number is 42, although as Parkin noted, knowing that is no use without the dialling code.
Which HHGG character am I? A Hagunenon of course (something with much longer arms but totally incapable of drinking coffee).
And in a totally surprised aside, I know the chap quoted on Wikipedia! (He was in the York Uni Multimedia Soc at the same time as me)
Ah, yes - further evidence in support of my thesis. This probably does "give the game away" - except that it is sort of 'hidden' by the fact that it precedes the revelation of The Answer and subsequent discussion as to The Question.
Also, I think this might only occur in the radio series - I don't recall it from the books.
It does make you feel strangely important, doesn't it, when someone you know is quoted on Wikipedia.
Everything I Love About HHGG is in the Radio series. (1 & 2 anyway). All the other formats never really "did it" for me. I have memories of listening along with my mother when I was about 5 (and being completely baffled of course) and have had the tapes of the original decaying slowly ever since (but still audible). I copy them onto new tapes every now and again.
I still have my original tape copies.... somewhere. I haven't played them for years, and they have probably degenerated horribly.
I may have to beg copies from you.
I learn from Wikipedia that the BeeB later cashed in on the books by creating a further series of radio series that somehow tried to achieve a concordance of the original radio episodes and the (very different) books. Did you ever hear any of those.
I think it was relatively recent, so they wouldn't have had Peter Jones as The Book.
I heard some of them - they lacked the magic some how. Peter Jones' voice morphed into William Franklyn's, and Douglas Adams played Agrajag.
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