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

Irv, if it's any comfort to you I had a similar ephiphany about why Nobby Nobbs spent most of "Jingo" dressed as a belly dancer called Betty when I saw a documentary about Wilson, Keppel and Betty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYml9GNUl-c - and burst out laughing. It must have been a good 15 or 20 years after I read the book, though.

wow, she really can't dance, can she?

*blinks in disbelief*

* to re-read Jingo*

*sips *

My sister's cat apparently had kittens a couple of days ago, we will be taking 1 or 2 of them when they are ready to be separated from their mother.

Quiet in here, innit?

bank holiday!

It appears I'm having an unscheduled day off. I'm supposed to be in Kansas City at a meeting but felt too awful to drive up there this morning. Plus my car is making a funny noise, and I was worried about driving that far until I find out what is causing it.

Happy Ban Collie Day to those partaking.

Just back from walking the dog - let the sat nav take us home from the forest to see the shortest route, down some rather tight country lanes.

Meanwhile we have 2 sweaty guys wheeling wheelbarrows in and out of our garage, in the process of beutiifying the back garden (i.e gravelling over the bit wot Max has ruined)

Good morning, all. I hope no one else made the same mistake I did, looking at my work email before actually going to work. Looks like it's gonna be a long week.

Not quite - checked the home mail, though...

We've started a strange three-week period - apart from a few, select days, the whole family will not be at home at the same time until some time in mid-September

Mrs SG V is on a w**k trip to Jutland until Friday. Then 15 goes to the Netherlands for a week with her 9th grade and part of that same week 12'll be joining the scouts for the annual live-in in the scout's house. Once they're both back we have a Sunday together (the 7th) before 12 goes with _his_ class on a 4-day trip. And to round it all off, the kids & I go on a scouting weekend.

Madness? Did anyone say anything like that?

(oh, sure, there's a lot of fun in the various trips, too )

The gardening work means, of course, that there is a skip sat outside our house for a day or 2, so anything you want rid of, you know where to come.

*tap finger on side of nose*

Hello all! I've been on a mini-vacation (work related, but still fun) for the last five days. Let's see if I can interject a few thoughts on the subject matter:

You're better off without your "friend", Mags.

Vendetta sounds fabulous. I'll have two scoops in a bowl, please. Hold the toppings.

<>

I feel like I don't know you at all, Hyp!

I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics. That was all. If the world's brief attention helps human rights conditions in China in the long run (like Nixon's visit back in '72, or whenever) great, but I doubt it. It will take a whole new system of government for things to improve.

Speaking of the Olympics, did anyone else watch the Puppy Games on Animal Planet? http://animal.discovery.com/tv/puppy-games/ Waaaaay better than the real thing.

For me, James Joyce is the author to hate. Henry James runs a close second. God, I hate Joyce. Hate him, hate him, hate him. Sheer gobbledygook. The other James, M.R. is fabulous. "Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad" is one of the best ghost stories in English literature.

The best version of Wuthering Heights is Monty Python's semaphore one. Otherwise, Heathcliff is an ass, Lizzie Bennet is divine and Jane Eyre needs a good slap. And I like Great Expectations.

As to the Olympics, Danish media today has done a score of coverage of various topics and the conclusion is that the media (here...) didn't go aaaahh, oooohhh, all blue-eyed over the sports and the dazzle but did indeed remember to report pretty much also on China, human rights issues etc.

A word of caution to the librarians among us. I know we've encouraged you all to write books about your experiences. Be careful to thoroughly disguise the patrons you profile:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-librarydiaries,0,6451431.story

[mags]

Enjoying the Ban Collie Day. Painting Chaos Spawn. If they turn out alright I *might* post a link.

Witty, it sounds like the biggest mistake was when the publisher put a picture of the library on the front cover. Also, she probably should have changed the name of the state. Bad job all around, it looks like.

I bet our resident librarians could put together a marvellous book between them.

Just been watching the Edinburgh Tattoo on tv - including the marching band from South East Missouri State Univ

It's been a very quiet Ban Collie Day here. The most excitement I've had all day, except the Tattoo, was dealing with No3's bag of washing when he came home from the Reading Festival
I'd have made him deal with it himself but I think he's had rather too much fun to be given charge of a washing machine just at the moment.

SGV - your home life sounds very busy and interesting.

> as you know how it ends, and find the characters too to stay with, why on earth read it all?

I can count on the fingers of one hand the books that I've read and discarded halfway through. One of them was Jack Chalker's #7 in the Wellworld series. I was so mad that I took all the books (including the one I had thrown down) and tossed them in the trash, so nobody else would be victimized by these terrible books. Later I wished I had kept #1 - it wasn't bad. But that was a couple of hours out of my life I'd never get back.

I always say that if it has robots, aliens, or space, then count me in. Alien Robots from Space would make a great movie title, actually. I'd be the first in line.

> It's too mindless for what is supposed to be a mindFUL heroine.

Precisely the reason why I don't read romance novels. Unless I'm tricked into it, like that Diana Paxton series.

> For a change of topic, who saw the Olympic closing ceremony

I caught the bit from the Chinese, of the giant Olympic torch covered with people in red and yellow suits. I started giggling when the guys in the red started running in the air (held up by their yellow companions.) Actually quite a nice visual, but it did look silly.

> (i.e gravelling over the bit wot Max has ruined)

Beatrice, does Max look like this?

http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/funny-dog-pictures-your-dog-fixed-your-flower-beds.jpg

>> "Open this book and you'll meet the naked patron, the greedy, unenlightened patrons, destination hell, the masturbator, horny old men, Mr. Three Hats, and a menagerie of other characters you never dreamt were housed at your public library."

>> ... library Director Robert Dickson said the book's subjects weren't hard to recognize.

That would be funny if the author hadn't lost her job.

I've done bugger-all today. Not entirely true, I've put filler into the nail-holes in the staircase and added compost to the wormery but I am, basically, rather bored. Bad Ben. I have a stack of paper This High to sort though and there is no health in me.

Ben

[lil] also home not feeling well