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

I have no idea how you manage to keep on writing such wonderful prose, week after week. It's fantastic. And can I have a purple book please?

Thanks, Vip. Encouragement is always appreciated - although some might say I shouldn't be egged on.

You know the best places to find Purple Books? Remainder tables. I have found the most amazing books there.

Who says such incredible things to you, Dmitri? Tell me, and I'll have words with them.

Say that *after* you get next week's article, Bel...

More insanity now in mailbox...

So I've seen.

Good good. Vip wants MOAR!

... and here's a little more egg on you...

This is a lovely piece.

But I'm never sure how many levels there are in your pieces, and whether to or

Is the message that you need to be wary of peculiar old ladies or that you have to be mad to cope with life today? Or both?

I am intrigued by the question of what it means to be 'normal', and how many of us are at any given time. Are we all a bit ?

Great first sentence, by the way.

Thanks, MVP. You are perspicacious - that story came from the first sentence, and a bet I made with myself that I could go on from there.

I did mean that - that looking soberly at the current state of man on the planet is so miserable-making that some form of controlled madness is required to cope with it all.

My friends the Goths seem to offer a solution: stop trying to make it all make sense, and tend to the joy you can find.

In that case, we're doing a public service by writing our bits of prose and poetry.

Exactly what I'm saying. And encouraging.

We may not have strength, power, amazing organisational skills, a large bank account, or any other tools that make a difference in this world.

But we've got our minds and our imaginations.

Bacon said, 'How many people have dated an era in their lives by the reading of a book?'

My school friend Randy said, 'Read 'Dracula'. It will change your life.' (It did.)

I'll bet nobody ever dated an era in their lives by the reading of a political blog rant. But I may be wrong.