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

Ok, this has been on my mind for years, no one seems to be able to answer my deep and world shattering question:-

Why are Travel Rugs ALWAYS tartan??!!!??
No matter where you go, you can never find a cerise, aubergine or magnolia color travel rug - only tartan. I mean do these creatures only come in one flavour of species, or is it that we have yet to discover some hitherto unknown variety of Travelius Ruggious?
I really need to know this, the fate of mankind may depend on it!!!

What's a travel rug? I'm from the U.S...is a travel rug another one of those spiffy Brit things, or?

Well, Travel Rugs are basically pretty much what the name implies. Nearly everyone has one in their car/home/boat/bag etc. Generally a square woollen piece of cloth about 3 ft square (usually with a tassle fringe round the edges) which you sit on whilst resting in the countryside/sea-side/desert/polar expeditions etc - and without fail, they are ALWAYS tartan!!!! I hope this clears the nature of the beast up a little! Who knows, even you may have one lurking in the darkest depths of your home/car/boat/bag!!!!

Creepy. Nope, I've never heard of that sort of thing .. perhaps you can lobby for different colors, or make a coalition..you know, PFMCTR...People For More Colorful Travel Rugs?

HHHmmmm....not a bad idea! I like it! I take it I have your support??! I could handle the British/Europe side, and you could
gain support for our Cousins Across the Puddle!!! Cool!
I can see it now... Multicolored Travel Rugs For ALL!!!
(Phew! Thank goodness there's someone as daft as me!!!)

Rug: slang name for false hair piece (wig).
DO NOT confuse this with that described in such flowing prose by
MadMagz.
Even though a rug is attached to its owner when he/she travels, it should be obvious that it is not a traveling rug in the main sense of the word (and I have not seen any Tartan Wigs lately)!

Though, I can't get to justify the thing about calling it a 'wig'. It has nothing to do with hair, at least not the ones I think about.

These green things which you sit on after walking for a couple of hours on the mountain, and instead of sitting on a cold, hard cord, you sit on this thing. Yes, they'r green. But I may be recalling a blue one once. But that's probably just my mind fooling me. I think I've only seen grren ones here in Norway too. Though, the thought haven't occured too often to bother me =)

er.. 'cold hard rock' that should be. You know, rocks, specially cold ones, are not too pleasent to sit and drink tea/coffe on, so instead you sit on this green thing.

That actually makes a great deal of sense. I wonder why we Americans don't have those?

-sTv "Kite...falling...talking...like...Shatner..."

Hmm, curious.... what started out as a simple thought has now taken a terrifying turn for the scary! Green (or possibly Blue) travel rugs spotted in Norway.... Could this be an unknown sub-species which has evolved to camouflage themselves in the fjords and crinkley bits of the lands of our Scandanavian chums!
Could it be, ScullytheVampire, that travel rugs in the US could be hamburger colored???? If so - you must be vigilant!!!!

i bleieve i have the answer to your problem.
it is my oppinion that Tartan of one form or another is infact the 'default' colour for all things in the universe, and, if something is given no expressly defined colour, it reverts to whatver random checked patter it wishes. This would explain why certain things end iup being colourted iun such a manner.
you have very astutely noted the travel ruig.. but have you considered those little coats that people put on their dogs?
what about tea coasies?
golfing trousers...
and if you squint really hard at a glossy magazine while loking at it through a magnigfying lens of some sort, you will notice that its constituant parts are in fact tartan.

this all leads me to believe that whenever somehtign is created in a hurry, and there has been no time for it's creator to apply colour, it appears as tartan.

which explains why important things, like fish, lemmings, treacle, tall people, hedgehogs, lettuce, and crumbs, are never, ever, tartan..

i hate those! my mother has a seemingly inexhaustable collection of them
at every oppurtunity i like to send one to its grizzly demise at the bottom of a precipice or lake, but invariably my matriarchal figure is capable of providing a replacement within mere seconds,... it defires belief! i think i must have sent 20 to their deaths in one walk once!!

You are heartless! I love my travel rugs. I have three. Two are, you guessed it tartan, but my favourite is one my aunt crocheted for me. It is multicoloured but seems to have a lot of burgandy in it.

Maybe the reason it's not tartan is 'cause you can't crochet tartan?

Yes, I think we're all very close to the answer - from these simple yet crucial observations, I think we may have stumbled onto one of the fundamental facts of the Universe! :-

1) The default color of Everything is - TARTAN!
2) A significant part of the Universe is *NOT* crocheted! Which, by deduction means that the rest of it *IS* crocheted!

And as we all know, most crocheting is done by Grannies, therefore it follows that the part of this all encompassing existence that we know as the Universe (Etc) has been created by .....the Cosmic Grannies!!!!!!

Suddenly fluffy slippers and travel rugs all start to make some sort of scarey sense!!!!!

Actually, thats TWO facts of the Universe!