Beautiful Days
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy never had this to say about beautiful days: Depending on what planet you happen to be on at the time, a beautiful day can either be a common thing, a rare pleasure, or an impossibility. On the planet Gruigphon in the Armedia system, days are actually thirty-seven terran hours long, so few Gruigs have problems getting everything they need to do done in the morning, and then most spend their afternoons basking in the warmth of both their suns while relaxing about the Gruigphonian coastline.
In fact, many spend so long at the beach they forget to go back the next day and return to work. Hence very little actually gets done but they keep telling themselves there's so much time in the day they can do it all later. The Gruigphonian nights are almost twenty terran hours long, so you can stay up all night and still have time for sleep. Most days there are beautiful days. However, the Tragrolian system has a planet called Magwitch in which they only get a day once every five years. Because of how the planet rotates about its star, most of the time the star just sort of barely hits the horizon, at least on the only part of the planet that can support life. The majority of the planet is actually either desert or volcanoes, but on the northern and southern tips it's actually relatively pleasant. The one day in a long while that they get is experienced and appreciated in a similar fashion to how total eclipses are experienced on other planets. Many Magwitchians spend the day staring at the star in amazement using thick glasses. Some forget their glasses and there are a number of blind Magwitchians precisely for this reason.
There is a small bluegreen planet in the Sol system on the western spiral arm of the galaxy known as Earth which has a strange phenomenon. There is a little bit of variety through the course of that planet's year which would be a joy to others on other planets, since they usually have the same kind of day all the time. Earth actually has four distinct 'seasons' which some other planets never get to experience. However, the inhabitants of Earth are always complaining that one season is too hot or the other is too cold or the weather patterns are too unpredictable. In the case of Earth, whether or not a day is beautiful seems to depend on the Terran you're talking to. They like to talk about the day a lot though, especially about the weather. If you happen to get into a conversation with a terran regarding whether or not the day is beautiful, be sure to bring some stimulants with you, because otherwise the terran will most likely put you to sleep.