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

Hello, thought i'd reciprocate and check out your page...

There used to be seals by my parents' house when they lived at the coast. They always seemed very happy in a placid sort of way. Theres a definite seal-moomin link waiting to be explored i think. Those big eyes. Those fat tummies. Those silly little hands...

I ANDROKTONE

Nickname's sort of mould you, don't they?
About 5 weeks ago now (was it really so recent?) I found this place and I called through to the wife "what's a good nickname for a Hitch-Hiker's Guide site?"
...No initiative, you see. Can't do anything on my own...
Anyway, she yells back "Whale", which does indeed have appropriate connotations. But I rejected it, on grounds that it seemed to refer to my physique in an unkind way.
After briefly flirting with "Petunia", I decided I'd have a better chance of pulling Pinniped off. So to speak.
So here I am, learning to be a seal. It's a bit of a toughie sometimes, because there are plenty of people out there who know sealdom better than me. You among them, by the sounds of it.
But what the hell, I've got the blubber and the big dark eyes. No-one's hit me with a baseball bat yet, and I don't think I've contracted distemper. On the whole, it's a good life being a seal. You just hit the water, and you're free...
See you around, and thanks for all the fish, as I believe someone else once said...
Pinniped.

was that a subtle hint?

Here you go


you cant eate these ones theyre my pets..

It wasn't very subtle, was it?
Great fish, though. Thanx.
I will desist from trying to eat your pets in future. Bad habit of mine. Even worse with researchers who actually are fish.
Personally, I live in terror of the registration of a Killer Whale or two.
L.

Hiya ANDROKTONE
I just saw your recent Haikus, and the theme of Dust Bunnies.
It occurred to me (what with that and Moomins) that you'll be into this, if anyone here is.
Ever see the film "My Neighbour Totoro"?
In hope...
P.

I know the film you mean although I have never seen all of it i've seen clips i think.. theres a big woolly thing that lives in a tree isn't there? And a couple of little girls? And lots of strange little fat manga tree spirits or something? I'd quite like to get hold of it actually. Its the sort of thing I like to watch with a mug of hot tea when i'm feeling wooly...
I ANDROKTONE



I'm just taunting you now.... =)

Hi ANDROKTONE,
Yeah, that's the film alright. I was working in Japan in about 1992, a couple of years after its release. By then it was being televised in five-minute chunks. I kept seeing bits of it, and got intrigued. I brought a Totoro doll home (the blue one, the one that carries the bag of acorns).
About three years ago, I finally saw it in the English version, start to finish. I think it's probably the most uplifting film I've ever seen. If you do ever get the chance to watch it, take it. Although I admit that Suliki and Mei (the two girls; my spellings) remind me very strongly of my own two daughters, I don't think it's just me who'd find it deeply moving.
Totoros and Moomins might be somehow related, I think.
P.