The "Hijacked Thread" Thread

[Sheerluck]

Happy Towel Day froods!

Here’s what the Hitchhiker’s Guide has to say about Towels:

A towel is just about the most massively useful thing any interstellar Hitchhiker can carry. 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 (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 you can 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: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, 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 hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker 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.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Carol the Dabbler
Removed formatting in order to make text visible against the light background of some themes

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I know what’s going into the DVD player later.

[Arcadia]

Didn't care for the movie, but a good idea for some bedtime reading tonite!  

[Sheerluck]

15 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Didn't care for the movie, but a good idea for some bedtime reading tonite!  

It's a shame it wasn't better. At least we still have the radio and television series'.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Funny thing -- I never heard the radio show, but adored the book and TV show.  Didn't see the movie in the theater because i assumed it was just a remake of the TV show and I  think remakes are generally no improvement over the original.

But after seeing a couple seasons of Sherlock, I wanted to see what else Martin Freeman had done, so along with some other things I got the Hitchhiker movie.  My first reaction wasn't just that it wasn't any better -- I loathed it!  Not Freeman's performance, mind you, basically the script.

The DVD had a commentary track, so we watched that, and it helped a little.  For one thing, I had assumed that the changes had been made after Douglas Adams's death, behind his back as it were, but learned that they had actually been his idea.  I still didn't like them too much, but at least I no longer resented them.  We watched the movie again, and that time it wasn't too bad.

Then I said hey we've never watched the DVD of that wonderful TV show, so we got that out. And you know what?  We weren't impressed.

I think I had liked the book and TV show because they were so fresh and novel at the time.  Then I was comparing the movie to my thirty-year-old recollection of my reaction to them.  And of course it came up short because the idea was no longer fresh and new.  In fact it was thirty years old.  And of course the TV show was no longer fresh and new either. (I have a feeling that I'd still find the book as delightful as ever -- but I'm a little hesitant to test that hypothesis!)

After rewatching both versions again later on, I would say that they each have their good and bad points.  Of course the TV show suffers from its early-BBC production values.  I like both Arthur Dents, though they're very different. (I do wish they hadn't given MF that red hair and dark-green bathrobe, though -- they make him look awful.)  I prefer the TV Ford Prefect and the movie -- oh, what's his name? -- Ford's cousin.  And of course just love Bill Nighy's Slartybartfast.  I would prefer the TV robot suit with Alan Rickman's voice from the movie.

 

[Arcadia]

Amazingly enough, I encountered the radio show first … our local PBS station, I assume. I remember the TV show too, although I don't remember much about my reaction to it. I guess I liked it, as I kept watching it. But the movie … alas, Martin was the only good thing in it. I was so disappointed.

[Sheerluck]

On 5/26/2018 at 10:58 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Then I said hey we've never watched the DVD of that wonderful TV show, so we got that out. And you know what?  We weren't impressed.

I think I had liked the book and TV show because they were so fresh and novel at the time.  Then I was comparing the movie to my thirty-year-old recollection of my reaction to them.  And of course it came up short because the idea was no longer fresh and new.  In fact it was thirty years old.  And of course the TV show was no longer fresh and new either. (I have a feeling that I'd still find the book as delightful as ever -- but I'm a little hesitant to test that hypothesis!)

After rewatching both versions again later on, I would say that they each have their good and bad points.  Of course the TV show suffers from its early-BBC production values.  I like both Arthur Dents, though they're very different. (I do wish they hadn't given MF that red hair and dark-green bathrobe, though -- they make him look awful.)  I prefer the TV Ford Prefect and the movie -- oh, what's his name? -- Ford's cousin.  And of course just love Bill Nighy's Slartybartfast.  I would prefer the TV robot suit with Alan Rickman's voice from the movie.

 

I never noticed any problems with production values as a kid and to be honest I still don't. But then I watched Doctor Who and never noticed how low budget the effects were (apparently). I still much prefer the TV series to the film in all respects. That's just me though.

[Arcadia]

The production values on Dr. Who were part of the charm, as I recall. At least, back then.

[Sheerluck]

Is this the right room for an argument?

[Carol the Dabbler]

It's a good place for a discussion.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I’m bored and have 3 hours before I need to be back across the street to volunteer at a concert for the next several hours after that. I will likely see 1am before I go to sleep, possibly even 2.

[Sheerluck]

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Whew. Sorry, tension reliever. Had to be done.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I was looking up the pattern of a tropical cyclone for a story I’m writing and noticed a top news story stating that the smoke from the “lovely” California wildfires (and probably most of the rest of the wildfires from North America) will blow to the UK because of what was tropical cyclone Erneso. The link from Metro was from 12 hours ago and was expecting the system to arrive tonight (likely several hours ago now).

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Now for some kinda sorta better news than the US sending its smoke to the UK. I will be starting soon as a barista to the Minnesota chain (working it’s way across the US) Caribou. I do like the log cabin feel of their coffee shops. So it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Congratulations, Camper! 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Thanks Carol.

[Artemis]

Nice!  I love Caribou, I get my coffee there if I can help it.

 

[Arcadia]

Yay Camper! See if you can persuade them to reopen the branch down the road from me, I miss that place!  

Seriously, congrats.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Arcadia has been holding out on us. Apparently she’s got some tales being told by trollhunters in the form of an animated TV show. How could you not tell us Arcadia?

(it seems there is a kids show called Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia that has been on the air for a couple of years)

[Arcadia]

Bwahahahaha…...

[Sheerluck]

[Sheerluck]

There's a breathless hush on the Close tonight

[Carol the Dabbler]

 

[Arcadia]

I don't know either, Carol. All I'm hearing in my head is Herman's Hermits....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Ha!  Me too.

I assume it's a reference to some fandom that I'm not up to date on