don't panic

hi there

well, i did not know that. it's just been on the radio that it was 35 years ago today that one of the funniest things ever made in the history of funniest things, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, was first broadcast on the radio. happy birthday to it, then!

for me, and i suspect many others, it remains as fresh and as funny as the first time i heard it. the radio show is one that i regularly have playing on a night, often ensuring that i stay awake longer than intended, for i rather listen to it again than drift off to sleep.

no long piece on it from me here, for surely it speaks for itself. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is or if you will was surely the first natural child from the humour that Monty Python's Flying Circus gave to the world. well, if you disagree with that, at least it gave us one of the most useful phrases ever in the history of phrases.

just how far ahead of its time the show was shown off this morning in the extract from the show that the legendary DJ who reminded me of it being its birthday selected to play. that would be this section :

“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”

does the above not strike you at all similar to a phenomenon in the modern age? no? well consider this. back in 1978, and for a fair few years after that, people relied on this for knowledge and information.

these days it is not the case. as far as i am aware they no longer even publish the above, with instead everyone somewhat dangerously relying on this instead.

not everything on Wikipedia is wildly inaccurate, but the "user created" aspect of it means it is a great danger to rely on it. as it is indeed cheaper and has a nice picture on the front, good call there, Mr Adams!

you don't need me to tell you to listen to, watch or read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy today or any day, for you should be doing it anyway!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!