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

I first learned of the Hitchhiker's Guide from a wonderful, beautiful girl (whom had charmingly tried to overdose on what she did not at the time recognize as her brother's foot fungus medication) while sitting in the day room, in the juvenile psych-ward, in Memorial hospital. We had been discussing the amazingness that is the guide, and I was determined to read it after the cleverly structured tease of a description she gave me. The very same day, I saw what must have been the first advertisement for the HHG movie, a few years before its release, and the only ad I saw for it for at least a year. As soon as it was over, I swore I'd read it, and promptly bought the complete and unabridged Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (the black one that is well-bound, with gold-edged pages and place-marking ribbon- ironic how a book with such an atheist stance can so resemble (and replace) a bible.) And it has become one of my most treasured possessions aside from family heirlooms. As an avid reader and owner of hundreds of good books, I can honestly say this is the best reading I've yet found (or expect to). In fact, I'm in the middle of reading it again just now. I also own two copies of the DVD, The Salmon of Doubt, and am always on the lookout for the chance to expand this collection.



In reading the books, and other works of Douglas (which also happens to be my name), I've found that we're very much alike in many ways. Some even go as far as comparing my writing to his, but I daresay only in structure and not greatness. I have felt from the moment I finished the first page of the Guide that I had found a great friend, a great mind, and a great man. I feel that if by some means I could locate an infinite improbability drive and activate it that I would meet him and become his good friend.



Douglas Adams touched many lives, and opened many minds, and pissed off quite a lot of prudes. Personally, he's made me fall out of my chair laughing at some letters grouped on a page, something I had never thought possible before. I've always been above average intelligence, and he challenged the limits of my imagination and introduced me to new ways of thinking. While I was already an atheist when I discovered his work, he put my thoughts on religion into words before I was ever born. He did this with a number of lines of logic, actually, and expounded on some of them more than I thought possible, and left me feeling content that although the world is crazy enough for a man to spend his entire life writing about the silliness of it all and wind up making deep, profound, philosophical discoveries of the underlying truths in life, while never coming close to finishing his goals, there is still hope if we could all just learn to not panic and roll with the punches.



So now I am here, the newest author for Earth branch of the Guide, to pick up where he left off and do my best to carry on his legacy of greatness. I do not expect to fill his shoes or replace what we lost in him, and while I have never broken my nose on my own knee, I do believe that my dilligent and honest effort to preserve the guide as he imagined it, coupled with a fond memory of him, would be welcomed. Any other authors wishing to collaborate on an entry can reach me at [email protected].



To Douglas, a great man that never could find his towel. We've got a spare for you next time you visit.