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

I believe Robert Crumb's brother mentioned it passing all the way through and taking a couple of days to do so. Robert didn't seem too keen on the idea himself.

Considering some of the other things he says in the film, the brother may not be the most reliable yogi. Or maybe I just misunderstood what he was doing.

With practices like that, I would expect to see a Yogi Berra lot.

Well I'm trying not to think about the bit that was in your .... um.... colon.... being smeared into your duodenum and stomach.... let alone further up...

ick...

I wasn't trying to think about it. Now it's going to be hard *not* to think about it.

Shall we talk about lemmings instead? Or the psychological merits of bananas?

If you're going to floss properly, the only direction it's going is down.

If you're doing the yoga thing, it never reaches your colon - you leave the cloth in your stomach for a while (20 minutes was mentioned), then pull it back out. Not ideal (I don't like the idea of stomach acids in my oesophagus or mouth) but not as bad as colon contents.

Only 20 minutes, eh?


I really wish I could find that clip. I'm sure Maxon Crumb (that's Robert Crumb's brother from the documentary) talked about the process taking days. There's obviously the likelihood that he was just talking up his oddness for the film cameras and didn't really know the "proper" method for the process. There are obviously some sphincters beyond the stomach that would need to be navigated by the ribbon for this to work, so I'm thinking this is less plausible than I did 20 some odd years ago when I first saw the film. Here's a trailer: http://youtu.be/4FJiTCAmD4k

I did manage to find the full length film on YouTube, but that particular unauthorized upload is trying very hard not to be noticed by the copyright algorithms, so the image is squished into a corner and the volume level was too low for me to make out what Maxon was saying in that scene. I may have to find my DVD at home and check it out later to see what he actually says.

Nature seems to handle these things pretty well by itself, most of the time.

> wasn't trying to think about it. Now it's going to be hard *not* to think about it. cross<

How do you floss in only one direction? You clearly floss differently to me

Incidentally I do it with one of those mini-brushes these days.... let's consider doing this for a long .... bendy obviously.... test-tube brush type thing....

Paulh - I'm looking for your consideration here

When I'm picturing body flossing, I'm only picturing a flossing amplitude of maybe 300mm. So my mouth is only going to be see a bit of tape that got part way down my oesophagus. Admittedly, your other hand might encounter something a little less pleasant...

My consideration might not be worth a lot, Orcus. I still floss my teeth with...er...floss. My dentist never thinks I do it enough or often enough. So, if you want someone to use as a standard, you would do well to look elsewhere .

Nature's processes have resulted in mostly one-way travel of materials through the alimentary canal. This has gone on for millions of years in almost all of the multicell animals. I can think of a type of worm that excretes waste from the same organ where food entered in the first place, but that's about it.

Simple water, taken in large enough quantities, usually provides enough impetous to the digestive system to move things through from the mouth to the anus.

Nature could be working on a better system as we speak, and I stand ready to hear baout it if scientists care to pass the word along....

And there was me thinking this was some kind of new Fortnite dance move.

My dancing days are long gone past, but you are free to dance the floss if you wish.

In my previous posy, I mentioned that there was a worm that excreted waste through the same opening where food entered in the first place. Maybe it was a fluke that this organism came along?

I meant post, not posy.

>And there was me thinking this was some kind of new Fortnite dance move.<\

Well it has potential

They're putting up tents along the banks of the Po again?

"Nature's processes have resulted in mostly one-way travel of materials through the alimentary canal"

Tell that to my 15-month-old, just after we've fed him something containing sweet potato or butternut squash. He's working the "mostly" in that sentence pretty hard.

Similarly, I seem to recall someone or other being interviewed for comedy purposes. I think it may have been the renowned homosexual Julian Clary, or possibly some other gentleman of that persuasion. In any case, they were regaling their interlocutor with the tale of a conversation they'd had some time ago with their doctor, where they had mentioned they had a boil on their bum. "Oh really, where", inquired said medico. "Just to the right of the entrance," said the showbiz friend of Dorothy. "As a doctor", replied the doctor, "I tend to think of it as more of an exit." Ho and indeed ho.