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

Does Haniel (a.k.a Loki?) use tiktok or youtube for watching cat videos? He seems to be more temporally disconnected than Ori.

Isn't the whole purpose of prophets to be refused to be heard in order for them to be able to say 'I told you so!' at a later stage? (I realise this sentence contains more to be's than Shakespeare would use...)

Speaking of prophets, in the original text, that seems to have been Jonah's expectation.

And then it didn't happen that way and he sulked, big-time.

A genre-bending story in an ancient book? What will they think of next?

Jonah is an extremely sophisticated text for its time and I'm tired of people reducing its importance to an argument about sea mammals.

Of course, this story is about something else...

And yeah, remember, Prajapati gets his timeline confused, and Hani came down the staircase rather than riding around in the Paternoster, so Hani is more...er, detached.

I can so imagine how Jonas talks to a couple of figures on a relief...

*Prajapati, did you ever. . .?

I did not ever, was the grim reply.*

Says a lot in a few words. . .

I read something recently about how those specifications could have been about ways to distinguish Us from Them, but only in a specific set of circumstances at the time, so it is tricky when parts are selectively quoted nowadays. . .

Good point!

One thing to do, when people quote these random ancient prohibitions as 'proof' of this or that, is to point out that the same set of local laws also prohibited the eating of seafood and the wearing of blended fabrics. Also some beard cuts currently in fashion.

It's a whole subject. Yesterday I ran into some fascinating online background on the whole subject of Inanna's consort Dumazid and how his myth contributes to the celebration of Lent. If that is so, then Lent appears to be strongly condemned in the Old Testament.

More stuff for a sequel?

Just so you know: Lent is also a village in the Nijmegen municipality and 'slow' in French.

I did not know about the village!

It's all grist to the mill.

'A whole subject' indeed. I once saw mention on social media of someone who had a tattoo of a verse from Leviticus, which did cause discussion. Interesting indeed about Dumuzid and the parallels with other myths such as explaining how the seasons came about

A tattoo with a verse from Leviticus. I'd love to hear a group of bearded rabbis in THAT discussion. I don't know what Rashi would have said about it, but I'm sure they could find something.

The fun thing about the seasonal myths? They come from Sumeria - which had a wet/dry season thing going, which Willem is familiar with. Which is why this really messes with our heads if we live in the temperate zone.

That reminds me of a business trip to Quito, Ecuador. There wasn't a heater or air conditioning unit in sight because it was typically around 18 degrees (Celcius) all year round and just either wet or dry. The main reason for walls was to prevent things from being stolen. Armed guards were everywhere to further decrease the risk...

Sounds like nothing changes.

When I was a kid in Memphis, our pastor and his wife were former missionaries to Ecuador. They lived in Quito for a number of years. This would have been in the 1950s.

And he told us this joke.

The people in Quito accuse the people in Guayaquil of being big thieves. The saying is, 'People from Guayaquil will steal the socks off your feet.'

One day, a man from Quito went to Guayaquil. He sat down at an outdoor cafe and ordered cafe con leche. While he waited, he pretended to read his newspaper, but really kept a sharp eye on his socks, lest someone steal them.

The waiter brought his coffee and left. The man picked up his coffee cup - he had cafe negro!

'Caramba,' he said. 'Not only will they steal your socks. They will even steal the milk from your coffee!'

Yes, this is a terrible joke. I knew it was a terrible joke when he told it. But you know what? You said 'Quito' and 'steal' and I remembered it, like, more than half a century later? What does that tell us?

We have more memory space than we think, and it is filled with questionable content like cat food ad music, all the car registration numbers you ever had and such.

I remember the popcorn in the chicken and corn soup and the sweet fruit of a type I have never seen before or after.

You had POPCORN in your SOUP? I want to know about this.

Seriously, though, you're right - although personally, I think it's stored in the Cloud. Or at least mine is. The oddest stuff can come flooding back when you open a file.

They were doing all sort of things with corn. I forgot to add that this was for lunch. They had no bread, so I suppose you have to use popcorn instead of croutons then.

That would work, anyway!