"The song sparrows sang and sang, as if with joyous knowledge of immortality, and contempt for those who could so pettily concern themselves with death." 

~ The Country of Pointed Firs

Frontispiece from the 1919 publication (not a real place).

"When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a life-long affair." (The Country of Pointed Firs). Who has not felt this about some place they love? A jewel of a novella by Sarah Orne Jewett.

To follow up on my postings re: Hitchhiker's Guide. It is surprising how relevant this tome still is. Just recently, a coworker reminded everyone that it was "Towel Day" (this is celebrated more commonly than people imagine) and especially intriguingly, a few months ago I met a skydiver who quoted to me: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says,"There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Then this person said to me, "I do that." Which I think was one of the coolest, most concise things I have ever heard. It was hard for me to find a picture for this, as the concept is unsettling to me which is why I admire this person for being able to live it (living something described in a book, effortlessly, truly, deeply - and regularly! Or, if you like, living something for which the perfect description existed or exists). I finally settled on a photo called "Fear and Pleasure."

Monk by the Sea by Caspar David Friedrich, 1809

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 

The winds that will be howling at all hours, 

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. 

- William Wordsworth, 1802

"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

- The Great Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979

I have thought for some years that the worst day for traffic is Thursday...

Image: Christoforou, C. (2014). Cartoon traffic jam. [illustration]. Retrieved from http://conversation.which.co.uk/transport-travel/live-traffic-sat-nav-worth-paying-for/

I should comment on something. One of the most important concepts in the series is the number 42. You just have to accept that right off. When I started reading the series again a few days ago, I went to pick out a bookmark. And. Seemingly "at random" and without thinking about it at all, I selected a bookmark from the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson. I did not even notice for a couple of days.

This, if you know about it, suits the books perfectly.

"How would you react if I said that I'm not from Guildford after all, but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelguse?"

"I don't know...Why, do you think it's the sort of thing you're likely to say?"

- The Great Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979

Image of Betelguse

I'm going to attempt to post on one of my favorite collections of books. It's a big job - it's a big set of books. The complete collection of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There are only two authors I can read over and over without any ill effects. One is Nick Hornby. The other is Douglas Adams. I can see that they are similar in certain ways. Yet nothing beats the droll poetry of Adams, the pure Englishness, and the visionary quality of his work. No TV or movie version does it justice, though the movie with Sam Rockwell was okay. The TV version, even though it was British, and even though Adams helped with it, just did not do it for me. Which just goes to show that we all come to a story differently.

So to start:

This planet has-or rather had-a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

- The Great Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  1979