Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30

Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30 193

Posted by CmdrTaco on Saturday March 08, 2008 @10:12AM from the hah-i'm-still-older dept.

XaN-ASMoDi writes "Yesterday saw the 30th anniversary of the very first broadcast of Douglas Adam's seminal work, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", to mark this, Mark Vernon has written an article for the BBC News Magazine on the answer to The Question. 'It's 30 years since Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made its debut on BBC radio, but its most famous mystery is still waiting to be resolved...'"

Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30

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The proper way to celibrate (Score:5, Funny)

by edwardpickman ( 965122 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @10:24AM (#22686558)

Raise a pan galactic gargle blaster to the late Douglas Adams for 30 years of bizarre geek humor.

Rubbish article (Score:5, Funny)

by hairykrishna ( 740240 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @10:29AM (#22686588)

The guy seems to miss the point entirely, make vague spiritual overtones and I wonder if has even read the books. Was he one of the scriptwriters for the hitchikers movie?

The meaning of the answer is obvious (Score:4, Funny)

by LecheryJesus ( 1245812 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @10:34AM (#22686606)

Its the average IQ of a creationist.

Flame away :P

Re:The proper way to celibrate (Score:3, Funny)

by Icarus1919 ( 802533 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @10:47AM (#22686670)

You're absolutely right. Kurt Vonnegut was funny for all the same reasons.

Actually... (Score:3, Funny)

by uxbn_kuribo ( 1146975 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @11:07AM (#22686794)

Call me when the series turns 42.

42nd Post ! (Score:3, Funny)

by Dave21212 ( 256924 ) writes: <dav@spamcop.net> on Saturday March 08, 2008 @11:15AM (#22686820) Homepage Journal

I tried to post the answer, but the lameness filter won't allow it.

only 30? (Score:3, Funny)

by davidwr ( 791652 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @11:35AM (#22686930) Homepage Journal

The copyrights should expire just after dinner [wikipedia.org].

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:2, Funny)

by LordGlenn ( 656863 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:00PM (#22687054)

so, 5 is not a prime number?

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

by maxwell demon ( 590494 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:10PM (#22687090) Journal

Apparently not. In a BBC article [bbc.co.uk] celebrating 30 years of Hitchhikers, they report that Adams apparently refuted that suggestion:
I don't write jokes in base 13.

Well, maybe the true meaning of that sentence wasn't that he didn't use base 13, but that he didn't mean it as joke ...

Other news (Score:3, Funny)

by Jabbrwokk ( 1015725 ) writes: <grant,j,warkentin&gmail,com> on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:19PM (#22687140) Homepage Journal

"The 30th anniversary celebrations were accompanied by Vogon poetry readings over BBC radio. In other news, the suicide rate rose sharply across London and surrounding areas..."

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

by Ford Prefect ( 8777 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:26PM (#22687176) Homepage

Belgium, man!

Disconcertingly, the person who many years ago thought it would be a laugh to choose the username 'Ford Prefect' for this new 'Slashdot' thing is now, erm...

Living in Belgium.

Having a disgustingly rude swear-word as part of my address is great, of course. It's just that hardly anyone recognises it as such. :-(

Re:The proper way to celibrate (Score:3, Funny)

by BeerCat ( 685972 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:30PM (#22687200) Homepage

Raise a pan galactic gargle blaster to the late Douglas Adams for 30 years of bizarre geek humor.
I agree, besides, I haven't been hit in the head with a lemon peel wrapped brick in ages......
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk"

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk"

"Ask a glass of water"

Re:The meaning of the answer is obvious (Score:1, Funny)

by LecheryJesus ( 1245812 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @12:39PM (#22687242)

Or it could be the answer a creationist will give you when presented with the question:

"What is 6 x 9?"

Despite all logical reasoning, they insist that it's 42 because "THAT'S WHAT THE BOOK SAYS IT IS"

Re:Maybe my memory's failing me... (Score:4, Funny)

by tverbeek ( 457094 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @02:43PM (#22687838) Homepage

But nobody writes jokes in base 13.
I do. They're so funny that one of my jokes plus 79 cents will pay for a 1-dollar bus fare.

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

by tverbeek ( 457094 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @03:18PM (#22688046) Homepage

When I was in middle school I devised a rule set for determining the most "random"* number between 0 and 100. The guiding principle was that it had to be a number with no obvious significance. Any number with a strong popular "meaning" was out, so no 13, 52, 69. It couldn't be particularly large or small, so anything less than 10 or greater than 90 was out. Multiples of 10 were out, as were their immediate neighbors. So were numbers halfway between multiples of 10. Or numbers in the 50s or 60s (too close to the overall midpoint). Even numbers (and digits) were insufficiently odd, and composite numbers in general seemed a little too derivative. This left only two qualifying numbers, and 73 was too close to 3/4 for my tastes. So I concluded that 37 is the most "random" number.

And no, it's not part of my ATM PIN. :)

*Note: I said "random" not random. I know there's a difference.

Most famous mystery? (Score:2, Funny)

by Foehg ( 48006 ) writes: on Saturday March 08, 2008 @04:26PM (#22688382)

Why all this hubbub about the question? I'm still waiting for the REAL suspense to be resolved... who sustained a minor injury on their forearm?

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:3, Funny)

by Prof.Phreak ( 584152 ) writes: on Sunday March 09, 2008 @02:49AM (#22691052) Homepage

This is correct. According to every official source...

But the very fact that it appeared to him out of thin air may indicate that it has cosmic significance that DNA wasn't aware of.

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Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30 193

Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30 More Login

Hitchhiker's Guide Turns 30

The proper way to celibrate (Score:5, Funny)

Rubbish article (Score:5, Funny)

The meaning of the answer is obvious (Score:4, Funny)

Re:The proper way to celibrate (Score:3, Funny)

Actually... (Score:3, Funny)

42nd Post ! (Score:3, Funny)

only 30? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

Other news (Score:3, Funny)

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:The proper way to celibrate (Score:3, Funny)

Re:The meaning of the answer is obvious (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Maybe my memory's failing me... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

Most famous mystery? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:It's not the ultimate meaning... (Score:3, Funny)

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