h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey, you worked in a proper museum for a while - any tips for interviews? I've got two next week, and this would be my chance to escape that castle!

Oh, . I hope you find one that's a good fit.

I'd say, show them that you know your subject, and can handle the jargon. And act like you'd be available 24.7.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

The one I really want involves using a historic vehicles/machinery collection to interest kids from, shall we say, less academic environments in science and technology.

Oh, that sounds . Are the kids urban or rural? And is this in NI?

Yeah, still in NI, not having much luck elsewhere...

But since the country is so small, I assume they'll be from both. Sounded worthwhile, anyway.

Oh, y eah. I was thinking, if they're country kids, they might know some of the farm machinery stuff.

My sister was here, and we were talking about my grandparents' farm. It was what they'd call now, er, retro...

True - though a lot of what we have in the museum isn't what they'd have on their farms! It's the same place where I already work as a farmer myself, so I know the collections quite well.

Retro farming - that's just what you pay more for at Whole Foods I was recently looking through my grandfather's photos - luckily, my father had scanned them all. He was a city boy, but seems to have had more of a fondness for animals than my father did - there are loads of photos of farmers' markets, and of farmers still working the land with horses in the 50s and 60s!

I don't blame those people who buy from Whole Foods. The farm food always tasted better.

That's because it's bred to taste good and have nutrients, not look good in a supermarket three weeks after it's been picked :/

Amen to that. The photogenic approach to food is really ba

Photogenic things are bad anyway. Today, my horse decided he's afraid of rainbows

That's a new one on me. I would have thought they'd be too far away to be worrisome.

On the other hand, that's a big deal. Ireland has LOTS of rainbows, if I remember correctly.

you'd think. But he refused to budge until it faded.

I was afraid I might have a homophobic horse on my hands, but maybe he was only admiring the view...

But yes, hardly a week goes by where I don't see at least one rainbow here. All this weather has to be good for something!

I remember seeing ja spectacularly beautiful one in the west of Ireland.

When we were kids, we got a lot of them in Memphis, too. I've never seen so many anywhere else.

At least there's a purpose to all this rain. It's been incredibly wet here. The wettest January on record, since 1790!

Wow. I'm impressed. That MUST be a lot of rain. Better start worrying, if you see any animals running around in pairs.

Yes, I'd better get building...

TH White wrote a novel about that once. A group of people in Ireland turn a barn upside down and use it for an ark.

I hope it was the corrugated tin type, not a turf-roofed one.

That would be a mess, w ouldn't it?