Giselle has volunteered to lead this discussion!

[giselle]

I wonder if Douglas based the whole house demo/bypass on an experience he saw someone go through? Anyhow, one of my favourite moments in the whole book is Mr. L Prosser who has visions of Genghis Khan and a `predilection for little fur hats.' Brilliant! It still makes me laugh years...no, decades later.

Yes, I think Adams ties his character and humour to real people because as exaggerated or even silly the story line might be, I feel there is always some connection to reality and real people. Many of us have likely incurred the wrath of some officious sod from the local government office, perhaps not involving bulldozers, but wrath nonetheless. I agree Adams characterization of Mr. Prosser with visions of Genghis Khan is brilliant.

[froglipz]

I always thought the best advice from the book was to always have a towel when traveling. An art that is lost now that most of us travel from one hotel to another.

[giselle]

Froglipz: Nice to hear from you! And yes I think the 'towel' advice is great, if slightly outdated, perhaps the smartphone is the towel of today.

[Penelope]

giselle wrote:

perhaps the smartphone is the towel of today

A smartphone would be useless in outer space though. A towel, much more fundamental.

I think I'd take a cloak with a hood like Obi-wan. That would be really useful. Keep you warm or keep you cool, hide your identity.

What would you take?

[froglipz]

And if the cloak was made out of terry cloth it could double as a towel LoL

I would stick with the over large towel as something that would be useful almost everywhere.

[giselle]

And if the cloak was made out of terry cloth it could double as a towel LoL

I would stick with the over large towel as something that would be useful almost everywhere.

When I travel light and carry everything I need in my pack, I take a towel, but its a small one like the size of a tea cloth but made of some kind of special fiber that is super aborbent and dries fast. I suppose its a high-tech towel, sort of fits with Hitchhikers! Of course, there is no water in space so, for all its hi-tech it might be kind of useless. I think a scarf is a pretty useful thing to take, keep you warm, can be used in different ways and looks good when the wind blows ...