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

I wonder whether Mar-a-Nineveh counts under the no pun rules, but we'll let it slide. (given the number of breaches I think / know I made).

If it weren't for the fact that the restaurant was closed on wednesdays, I suspect I would have had a very similar experience in the run-down French hotel I stayed in last week. (which was in fact run-down, trampled on, close to bulldozed and left to die).

Good chapter!

Thanks, Caiman! I didn't think about the pun, sorry. Although 'Mara' is Hebrew for 'bitter', funnily enough...

Wow. You've had some adventures (I've just seen the signs). That makes me think of that story - I don't know if it's an urban legend - about the family that drove through France back in the 50s or 60s and stayed at an amazingly old-fashioned inn, cheap, too... On their way back, they tried to find that inn again, only to be told it had been closed for 50 years or something like that...

That's only a bit creepy. Maybe some other passer-by wanted to earn some money and opened up a closed inn?

I did once end up in an anarchist commune (also France) but decided against staying.

I thought about the pun following the clay tablets around the bathtub.

So Mara-Lago: Bitter Lake?

As a multilingual play on words, that would surely work!

Actually, 'mar-a-lago' means 'sea-to-lake'. It refers to the extent of the property, from Lake Worth to the Atlantic. It was originally built by Marjorie Meriweather Post, who owned General Foods, in the 1920s. She left it to the National Park Service with the intention of its being used as a 'winter White House' by presidents. NPS thought the upkeep was too expensive and gave it back to the estate.

Little did anyone dream it would be bought in the '80s by somebody who would turn it into a tacky resort and then store secret documents in the bathroom, the poolhouse, etc.

I would rather expect the former President's base on the nearby Castaway Cay or Hard Bargain islands

There are plenty of Keys, aren't there?

Great episode

I particularly appreciate *Ophaniel had tried to explain the enfolding of the N-dimensional Euclidean space through N-dimensional spheres, about ten seconds after the Big Bang*

Thanks, Sasha! (I was keeping the audience in mind there.)