Festivals, carnivals, jamborees - a time for communities to reaffirm their togetherness with colourful displays of music and pageantry, laughter and joy - a focal point for humans everywhere to leave aside their daily woes and give in to the irresistible swell of celebration. And in the case of the sleepy town of Bucyrus, Ohio, every August people gather from miles around to celebrate... a sausage.

Indeed, the Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival is a sublime opportunity for those who venerate the mouth-watering Bucyrus bratwurst sausage... to eat more sausages. There's even a Bratwurst Queen, a sort of high-priestess of pork, with a special coin minted in her honour. So, butter those buns, pucker up those lips and get ready for a real meat feast.

Other interesting articles include:
Fetlocks;
Plastic;
The Secret of NIMH - the Movie and
Buckram.

This selection was brought to you by the h2g2 Five-a-Day Guarantee: we promise to bring you at least five brand new official guide entries every day of your working week. You can also see all the entries put up over the last month. Impress your friends! Develop your cocktail-party conversation skills! It's all here at h2g2, the ever-growing guide to life on Earth.

A Peck of Peta's Picks takes you to some of the juicy bits of h2g2.
If an entry is creative, evolving, or happening, you'll find it listed
here. Suck it and see!

Are you new to h2g2? Ease into it gently at the Newcomers Welcome page. Then you'll be able to
compare notes and discoveries with other new members. The page explains
a bit about h2g2 and the Community, so if you were wondering what the
site's all about, look no further...

The h2g2 Aces are the meeters and
greeters of h2g2. When new Researchers join h2g2 the Aces race to drop
in and say hello. They're a friendly group who are keen to help, so call
by the Aces' home page and introduce
yourself. They'll make you feel welcome...

• This week we're recruiting some new h2g2 team members. If you'd
  like to be a Sub-editor leave a message here;
  to volunteer to be an Ace, post here. To
  have a general chat about recruitment go to this page - 'Recruitment'. Thanks everyone, we really
  appreciate your enthusiasm for the project. Over to you...

• Joke: What's the difference between Brussels sprouts and bogeys? Small boys won't eat Brussels... Share your best anecdotes and gags with us in the joke directory. Have you heard the one about...
  
  

• h2g2 is a global site: Join the Researchers in Zomok Bojnice,Solvak Republic, Prague, Czech Republic, Syktyvakar, Komi Republic, Russia.

If you find a little gem that's particularly interesting or good fun,
or you've created something that you would like others to contribute to,
please let Peta, h2g2's Community Editor, know
about it here.

Because there are more questions than answers, we've decided to extend our popular Ask h2g2 section even further. So if you've got a question, you've now got two places in which to ask the community:

• Ask h2g2 - Still one of the busiest forums on the whole h2g2 site, this is where you can ask absolutely any question about absolutely anything and get absolutely any answer from absolutely anyone. Absolutely.

• How do I...? - If you've ever wondered how to do something - whether it's yodelling, getting a soufflé to rise, or making friends and influencing people - then this is the place to ask.

Our highly intelligent community will no doubt be able to find the answers to even the most challenging of questions... even if the answer is 'I've no idea'. Still, that's better than a stony silence.

To celebrate the GSM Global Congress, we've put together an entry on Cannes, France so the delegates can get the very best out of this wonderful spot. Enjoy!

For those of you lucky enough to own a WAP device - yes, both of you - you'll be delighted to hear that we're launching our h2g2 On the Move service. That's right, h2g2 is hitting the road: you'll be able to read entries and forums, search the Guide and write journals all from the comfort of your hand-held WAP phone.

For those of you who know Douglas' books, this is the first step towards our plan of creating the genuine Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a portable wireless device that you can carry around with you anywhere and access the h2g2 community from. All we have to do now is find someone to produce WAP phones with 'Don't Panic' on the back...

If you're looking for something special for the new millennium, then make sure you pop along to our brand new Douglas Adams Shop. Here you can find signed Hitchhiker books, CDs and tapes of the original radio series, videos of the BBC TV series, the Starship Titanic game and two exclusive items: a Douglas-recommended CD by guitarist Robbie McIntosh, and a video of Douglas live at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.

We tried to get hold of a plastic pal that's fun to be with, but apparently the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation has sold out. That'll be the Internet, then...