Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Hitchhiker's Guide was made into a video game in 1984, co-designed by Douglas Adams, with lots of his sense of humor. (See "Best of the Web" for some links to where you can still play it.) For an example of that humor, here's what the game box came with: a manual (which didn't help much), a "Don't Panic" button, a collection of pocket lint, demolition orders for Arthur's house (in English) and the Earth (in Vogon), a plastic bag containing a microscopic space fleet, and Joo Janta glasses (which are totally black glass, from the TV series and the second book). Also included in the box, according to the manual, is "no tea"—just like Arthur's experience of space. (Source.) (Source.)
Back in 1993, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, a company called Voyager wanted to make electronic books. So naturally, one of their first products was an electronic version of The Hitchhiker's Guide, and Douglas Adams recorded a super-short history of the book, from books made of rocks to electronic books. As a bonus, this short history was recently animated in a contest, so if you ever wanted to see robots try to invent the book, this is your chance.
Douglas Adams was, by all accounts, a pretty good guitarist and friends with some famous musicians, like David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. (Pink Floyd is still famous, right?) Adams actually went up on stage to play with Pink Floyd. We don't have any video of that event, but there is a sound recording of it. Gilmour (and others) also came to play a memorial and virtual birthday party for Adams in 2012. As a bonus, if you know the radio version of Hitchhiker's Guide, you know Marvin hums some Pink Floyd, which had to be removed for the record version. (Source.)
No, seriously, at least someone believes that Adams's work belongs in a museum. In 2005, the London Science Museum put on an exhibit featuring props from the movie and exhibits about Douglas Adams. Finally, a place where people can go to learn about the dangers of Vogon Constructor Fleets.
Douglas Adams told Neil Gaiman that he didn't really like Lewis Carroll: all of that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland stuff was too scary for him as a kid. (See Don't Panic—again.) But that doesn't stop literary sleuths from noting certain parallels. For instance, the Vogon poetry bears some resemblance to Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem, and Carroll in some books uses the term "Fit" instead of "Chapter," which is a term Adams also used for his radio show. Carroll also uses the number "42" in quite a few ways—the number of boxes the Baker has, the rule that all mile-high people aren't allowed in the Red Queen's court, and so on. (Source.) Is there a real connection here? You be the judge.
The number 42 is a lot like a bowl of petunias—they're both pretty ordinary things. Petunias are neither rare nor—no offense if you love them—particularly interesting flowers, and 42 is a pretty ordinary number, not like pi or some other weird number. (No offense to pi.) And yet, as people note, the number 42 sure seems significant: 42 is the number of Egyptian demons that judge the soul; it's the number of generations from Abraham to Jesus; it's the number of a wolf's teeth, and more. (Source.) 42 is also, by the way, how old Douglas Adams was when his daughter was born. So it may be a pretty ordinary number, but it sure comes up a lot. (Source.)
How much would you pay for this book? What if we threw in a free shammy? Although people loved it in Britain, the American edition didn't sell so well at first. Since this was published before the Internet, the publishers came up with a plan: they put an ad in Rolling Stone offering a free copy for the first 3,000 people to write in. Those people then told their friends about the book, and pretty soon it was a bestseller even in America. (Source.)
Douglas Adams not only wrote for TV; he also appeared on it. In fact, besides writing (at least one sketch) for Monty Python, he also appeared twice on the show, though usually in some outfit that made it hard to recognize him. Adams also appeared in The Hitchhiker's Guide television show as a naked man throwing his money away and going into the sea. That's one way to get noticed. (Source.)
In 1979, the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation went to…. Superman, with Christopher Reeve. Hitchhiker's Guide was on the ballot—it was the only radio series on the ballot, in fact, and it came in second. Most voters for the Hugo, though, are Americans. There's a story about the convention that year, which was held in England. The story goes that when Christopher Reeve got up to accept the Hugo for Superman, he made a comment about how the awards were fixed and everyone knew who should have won that year, after which everyone in the crowd cheered. This story is also told in Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic. (Source.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide has influenced a lot of pop culture, but who cares about that? Let's talk about DIY culture. For instance, did you know that there are Hitchhiker's Guide-themed weddings these days? Then there's someone who should probably be on Cake Boss who went ahead and made a Whale and Petunias Cake design. There's also Marvin embroidery and "Don't Panic" cross-stitch designs. And lots and lots and lots of DIY towel designs.