It's Towel Day

"Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams)

On this day in 2001, beloved and highly weird author Douglas Adams left for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then I wish you were as cool as me.  No, really.

There are lots of philosophical lessons from the Hitchhiker's Guide series: Getting the knack of flying is just falling and forgetting to hit the ground; the most complicated math in the universe regulates how to split up a check at a restaurant; your nemeses may just be the same person reincarnated over and over again; time is an illusion, lunchtime, doubly so.  But the most enduring lesson of the Guide is about towels.

See, the point of a space hitchhiker having a towel is that it is massively useful, and also, when non-hitchhikers see you have a towel, they become willing to lend you other necessities.  But for some of the characters in his books, having a towel is a sort of security blanket.  One fellow even has corners of his towel soaked in barbecue sauce and antidepressants.

How does this relate to Maeve?  She has her own towel, of sorts, because she has Bashbo.  Bashbo is her name for her lovey blanket, which is slowly being worn, lovingly, to bits.  And let me tell you, she is a frood who really knows where her Bashbo is. 

Today we celebrate the life and works for Douglas Adams, and many people (I know, you're thinking, really? Many?  But it's true) will celebrate him by carrying around a towel today.  I don't know if Maeve and I will have towels with us, but she will have her Bashbo, and I will have all my happy memories of Douglas' books to keep me company.  And we will have a weather eye out for Vogon construction fleets.