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

I once went on a naturist holiday in a group of four in the south of France. It was one of the friendliest holidays I ever went on. I have a strong memory, though, of the male half of the other couple sitting fully clothed on his bed the first morning with his hands round his knees, saying 'I'm never going out there - it's too disgusting - I'm going home'. We did manage to get him out of the caravan, but his face was a picture as we walked to the building to register. We had allowed him a 't' shirt and his eyes were firmly on the floor all the way. It didn't take long though, for him to be comfortable with it. The camp was very family orientated and it was so much nicer to be without the restrictions of clothes, that if we had gone off-site, we would immediately strip off when we got inside the camp boundaries.

As to the carcinogenic argument. I would agree that people should be careful. I think the naturist argument is that skin is a major organ of the body. We would all be healthier if if were exposed to the air more. The danger of cancer comes from the short but intense exposure we give it on holidays and if we had longer exposure to all types of sunlight, it wouldn't be such a problem. They do council that children and older people should take shelter in the heat of the day and that people should take precautions such as sun creams. They may have a point there.

I'd heard of a people who fattened their women in the way you mention. I thought it had probably died out. Are these western people or tribal folk?

Yes, my package. I pay £10 per month, but if I had unlimited access, it would cost almost four times that.

I hope your entry is going faster than mine; mine have stalled.

I'm in one of those pre-holiday mind sets.
I don't want to do anything. I don't want to do nothing.

My wife lived in a nudist camp near Austin,Texas for awhile. She was working as a nurse during the day. I believe there were a few chemicals involved, too.

The sun in Texas will cook you.

Suffered sunstroke and poison ivy and ant bites and spider bites from clearing out a ditch summer before last.

No, the feeders have suffered a resurgence due to the fashionable ideal of a stick with bubbles on it. Most of it is just fantasies and art, but I have heard of predator types preying on the vulnerable.

I believe repression leads to these things.

It seems to be popular in Germany, France, Canada, GB, Belgium, among the black communities internationally and South America.

I've never been to Texas, but I have no difficulty in believing you!

The stuff you went through digging a ditch reminds me (probably imperfectly) of a song 'The Devil went out to Texas', sung, I think, to the tune 'Soldiers Joy'.

Feeders - uck, yes I agree with you about repression there.

I've decided to take the evening off - I'm supposed to be ACEing at the moment, but there's always tomorrow. Oh, yes, I'm also supposed to be writing a presentation for Monday, which I must do over the weekend. So I'm playing hookey today!

I've just discovered how to make some smileys with fewer keystrokes. I know it offends your sensibilities as an artist. If you click on mine, it'll take you to the smileys page.

Hi Tonsil Revenge!

Now, you'll have to excuse me here, I'm about to swank! One of my entries made the front page today. I've made reference to the Philadelphia Mummers, but the connection to the USA is a bit thin - more substantial to Canada, probably.

Hope you are well!

Stay

Sorry, been messing around with this AWW/GAG stuff with JWF and Spiff and Lucinda and Dezeob (sp?).
We've got this little thing going on in the Post with a column highlighting some of the more neglected entries.
I've been asked by Bossel to go look at the grammar on his Radar project.
Just some little things.

Hope the little one's well.
We just went and got some new glasses for the daughter. Two pairs so she'll have a pair to wear if she bungs them up like she has all her life.

The little one is alive and well and at Saturday Club (held in the local library) making Christmas decorations, so I've about an hour to do things which I might not otherwise do.

Can you send me a link for the Post stuff, or is it obvious? You sound rather busy at present.

Bossel seems to be the most active scout there is. He was very helpful to me in one of my entries. I seem to be spending more time looking at and giving suggestions for entries than doing work on the ones which I've started, but I'm sure I'll get round to doing them sometime.

What does your daughter do with the glasses?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A666623
Here, try that.
The kid sleeps on her glasses, steps on them, lays them lens down on billiard felt and spins them so the lenses get scratched irrepairably, has basketballs bounced off her face, looses them, sits on them, drops them while running, pulls them off her face sideways...you name it.

The same thing about my entries. And my damn novel.

I'm having one of those holiday season depression things going on.
Real spacey, am I.
And the kid's got two and a half weeks off coming up!
We're trying to get her room cleaned up. A garbage bag at a time!

Thanks. I'll have a look - tomorrow. It's 1.30am here and I should have been in bed long ago, but I'm trying to be a good scout and finding things difficult.

Found an interesting site called 'adbuster' - can't give you the link, it's against rules, but it should be fairly easy to work out. Have a look. See what you think.

Must sleep

Stop it, you're making me yawwwwwwwwwwnnnnnn........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just been to that site.
I am in favor of intelligent consumerism. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
On the other hand, I am not in favor of mob behavior. Any mob.

As for the bit about Bush and his 'war on terrorism', I just hope it is more successful than his predecessors and their 'war on drugs'.

I didn't read it all and missed that bit. Remember it was almost 2o'clock in the morning, so I was entitled not to be at my best. I agree about the intelligent consumerism and I would certainly not favour mob behaviour. I actually liked the idea of having a TV free month, although at the moment, I wouldn't want it to include my computer.

I can remember when there was talk about what to do at the Millenium and I was in favour of the mooted four minutes (or was it four hours) media silence.

How about four days. Shut it all down and let everybody have a vacation.
'News' is a misnomer.
I ignore it as much as I can.
Found the page 3 site, though.

I completely agree. Our Christmas and New Year was more TV free than usual and I can't remember seeing any 'news'. Mum and dad have an old small black and white set, which they refuse to exchange for a colour one.

I was just about back home for New Years Eve which was quiet except for me being woken up by fireworks and a neighbour drumming on an Indian hand held drum beaten with a stick. Him I don't mind. The loud fireworks were just annoying.

Offspring has just discovered the joys of Rolf Harris (Tie Me Kangaroo Down, etc). Hey ho!

Mine is reading the complete works of Piers Anthony.
Who is Rolf Harris?
I was just online trying to track down the origin of my favorite kitchen knife.

Sorry, you've got me there. Who is Piers Anthony?

Rolf Harris is an Australian who came over to the UK. Rather than trying to blend in as a lot of Aussies did in those days he made (actually, he still makes) a career out of being Australian.

He was first known as a singer, comedian and painter, with songs such as 'Waltzing Matilda' 'Click go the shears' and 'Sun Arise' - all typically Australian. He used a wobble board, digeridoo and often had a breathy 'ooh-ah-ah-ah-ah-haa' bit between verses. He also used to do very large paintings as part of his act using very large paint brushes and his catch phrase was 'Can you see what it is yet'. They were very clever. He must have had to really practice to get it so good (or have had pencil marks on the while canvas to show him where to make his marks).

What's your favourite kitchen knife?

It's an Austian stainless steel blade with a square tapered stainless steel handle.
It's a bit like a butcher knife but it looks like one of those slasher movie knives. Straight back and slight curve to the edge as it goes to the point. It's stamped PS. The blade is wider than the handle so there's a little handguard. I picked it up cheap somewhere years ago. I use it ofr digging dandelions and roots and opening boxes and sitting around on the top of my CPU looking pretty.

Piers Anthony is an author of advanced years who has been published since the fifties. He is best known for his 'Xanth' series of books which feature outrageous puns and running gags. They turn fantasy on it's head and spank it. He's done a couple of collaborations with Terry Pritchett.

Yes, that's the trick to drawing in public. Blue pencil lines on the paper. Maybe it is the same for painting.

We've just been to see 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. I almost went to sleep.

Oh, and the knife is 15 inches overall and an inch and a hlaf at it's widest.

My favourite knife (apart from a little kitchen knife) is a bilhook, which I use when camping. It's got a long thick blade - about ten inches long and four inches wide with two blades, a straight blade on one side and a curved blade on the other. I use if for chopping wood, and chopped a little bit of my left forefinger off once including a bit of nail. It hurt like hell and someone put some Rescue Remedy cream on it before bandaging it up. It healed without going to the scab stage - amazing.

You said the Fellowship of the Ring. Is that a sequel to the Lord of the Rings? I know it's book two, but I didn't know one had been made. I'd like to go to see Lord of the Rings, but it's PG with a minimum of 8 (or is it 10) years old. Too frightening for my little one.

Don't worry about it.
Whatever it's called. Bored of the Rings.
Don't worry about your kid. They and you will be wishing you brought a pillow after the first half hour.
Everything is gigantic and the script is either tedious or confusing.

Oh, I've got pounds of tools. Hatchets, axes, machetes, corn knives.
And I've cut or bruised myself with all of them, including my shovels.
Sometimes, no matter what I do, my foot or fingers are in the way. Four of my fingers have been seriously slashed or burned in the last ten years. Not mentioning the numerous attempts to loose a complete hand in machinery.

There's some thing going on with the weather. I can feel it.

Ouch!

The first thing I remember doing is looking at my finger in complete disbelief and then thinking 'What an idiot'. It wasn't even a hard blow, just off target a bit.

The weather here has been cold over Christmas, mild for the past few days and the sky today was grim - yellow/grey and it's definitely getting colder again.