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

Dear Loonytoons,

I figured I'd choose you as my ACE since I used to work for Warner Brothers. In fact, I have actually directed Bugs Bunny.

I was on the Guide in its pre-BBC days but sadly let my surfing lapse after a near fatal car crash got me to finally pull up stakes, leave Hell A, wave goodbye to the Mouse House and move to Savannah, Georgia, where I am currently teaching animation at the local art college.

I visited your country in 1997 and thought it the most gorgeous one on the face of the Earth. Of course there are those little earthquakes now and again (I have heard that Wellington was 'a disaster waiting to happen) and the citizens of Rotorua were proud of the fact that the Taupo explosion of AD 1000 made 'Krakatoa look like the merest sniffle' by comparison.

I visited Christchurch at that time. Savannah resembles it. We don't have punting, the Savannah River is too deep and treacherous for that, but there are riverboats, lots of Spanish moss, sensational food, and a much healthier way of life than L.A.'s. I am pretty glad to be here in spite of a rough landing (and not just because of the broken bones.) Things are evening out on the job now and I think that there may be interesting developments in the curriculum. I'm all in favor of having studios in nice places.

Now then, too much shop talk. I love comedy. It's one thing that makes life more bearable. I also enjoy reading and am quite an Internet junkie.

I love caricature, antiques, book hunting (online mostly, nowadays) and travel. You can read more about me on my ridiculously named personal page.

But then, I like to list my professorial and professional titles and follow up with "Fred the Incontinent Hamster." It is an example, as a Disney colleague told me, of 'my perverse and wicked sense of humor.'
I took it as a compliment. Then again, I was described in similar fashion after I fashioned a wolf and a reindeer out of cooky dough for Christmas ornaments and had the former taking a huge bite out of the latter's posterior.

A posteriori,

Fred the Incontinent Hamster aka N. Beiman.

Fred, how lovely of you to visit. In the pre-BBC days my home space featured the Pink Panther theme as welcoming music. Alas, the new regime doesn't allow linking to music and pictures.

I'm pleased you enjoyed your trip to Godzone. Talking about explosions, Napier (200 miles south-east of Rotorua), where I live, was the scene of NZ's biggest natural disaster, the 1931 earthquake (7.9). It left 258 people dead.

I've never been to the States. If I ever do visit, I must check out Savannah. My mother comes from Christchurch so I will feel right at home

Loony

Dear Loony,

I have made a slight boo boo and wrote my reply to ANOTHER party in the Guide thinking that they were from N.Z. It was just a serendipitous accident, but they somehow managed to be in Northern Ireland.

I must make sure to keep my countries straight.

Yes, I heard of the great earthquakes of 1931 and also was told about the Taupo explosion of AD 1000. "Krakatoa and Mt. St. Helens would be the merest SNIFFLES by comparison," our driver said with a note of pride in his voice.

"Taupo will be blown sky high if there is a recurrence."

I resolved never to go to Taupo.

Savannah and the American South receive rather short shrift from many sources (history books never tell us about the colonial experience down here, which is a shame since it was on the whole a much friendlier thing than the Northerners' experience.) General Oglethorpe, the founder of Savannah, was a man far in advance of his time who made the first planned city in 1733. Savannah's city plan still works nearly three hundred years later. Oglethorpe also got along well with the local Yamacraw Indian tribe and the chief, Tomo-chi-chi, visited King George II in England and made a favorable impression. He also survived the experience, unlike the earlier (and presumably prettier) Princess Pocahontas. Which is why we don't read about him in the history books unless we're here.

At any rate, I like living here, and hope that the summer is not as furnace like as some locals have informed me it can be. I found Florida hotter and more humid than Savannah (being near the ocean is a bit of a help here, but Boca Raton was also on the Atlantic. We may just be getting lucky.)

I am wearing a T shirt from Death By Chocolate and hope to be able to annoy the locals with it later.

Here's hoping you are feeling loony as ever...

Fred

Fred, I believe you have just written the introductory paragraph for an excellent guide entry on Savannah. Go for it.

Oh yes, I've lots to contribute to the Guide, but may be busier than a one
armed
paper
hanger

in the coming weeks, attempting to assemble some filthy lucre prior to decamping for Denmark and the world's most bizarre amusement park in late August. And THAT will definitely be submitted to the Guide!

I was looking forward to a long period of unemployment, my first in about nine years, but someone persists in wanting to hire me tow ork on what i hope will not be a nightmare of a cartoon production.

So....

I'll write more later, but would like to know what Angels do at the Guide? And how are you?

Cheers

Fred

Fred, I am well - as I always are as long as there are a few cold ones in the fridge

Angels, are self-appointed h2g2 meeters and greeters. Most of them are fun-type dudes. They tend to complement the work of the Aces.

I look forward to reading some of your "twitterings"

Twitterings. Do hamsters twitter?

You might describe my comments as piddling....