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

I'm popping in as one of the assistant community editors or <./>ACEs</.> here. We greet newbies such as yourself and help you get settled. Of course it's easier getting settled when you know where things are. So my colleague Feisor has compiled a comprehensive list of Hints and Links at A719840. Take your time reviewing that as well as examining the various features in the process. And feel free to leave me a message should you have any questions - just use the 'Reply' button, alright. *waves*

(covered in confusion) Oh dear. What AM I like? There I was, blathering on about the deafening silence in my room, and how I was getting fed up with the sound of my own voice and related waffle like that...and all the time that perfectly sweet engraved calling card was sitting on the silver salver where you left it. To be fair, though, Gonzales (my wombat) had knocked it off the packing crate so I only found it when I came to unpack my spats.

So um, yes. I am starting to settle in a little and find my way round a bit. I've found that if I leave a trail of birdcrumbs I can usually get back to where I started. Only Gonzales WILL nibble on the crmbs (it's the strict diest I've put him on. Sad, but necessary in the racing world)so I do often go blundering about in total confusion.

Thank you so much for popping by, though. Is it o.k. if I return the call sometime?

Oh you're quite welcome, both in the sense that I was only doing what I've undertaken the obligation to do & quite welcome to pay a return visit at some point...I look forward to it actually! Oh & give Gonzales a scratch behind the ears or whatever it is Wombats are partial to.

Sadly, Wombats are not particularly partial to anything much. Which is why I decided to train Gonzales to become I racing wombat. Thought it might give him some sort of ambition. 'Specially as wombats are not normally known for their fleetness of foot (or should that be feet?). You'd think being known as the world's fastest wombat would give him something to strive for, wouldn't you?

Hmm, you would think so*sigh* but you know what they say, 'a Wombat is as a Wombat does...that is when it wants to!' No, rather deoid of aspirations as we know them ...no visions of newspaper headlines proclaiming 'GONZALES, RACING WOMBAT EXTRORDINAIRE WINS...' or such. Ah the psyche of the Wombat, a truly unexplored frontier!

yes 'deVoid' ...appears the 'v' was lost in the void'!

Not to worry: I thought you were referring to the well-known fact that wombats consider themselves as god-like creatures. Though why any god-like creature would consider presenting itself as coarse-haired, crooklegged and evil-eyed as always been beyond me. Though, come to think of it, Pan had rather a good following once didn't he? But not so much in the Antipodean regions, as far as I recall.

Hmm I hadn't considered that possibility...the second coming of Pan, could it be?

Yep. I hear its going to be a real pandemic. (apologises profusely while giggling inanely. An acquired skill.)

No apologies necessary!*barely suppressed chuckles* Definiteely not a 'flash in the pan' then?

yes chuckles so barely supressed that an extra 'e' wriggled in there!

That's the thing with chuckles, isn't it? Whenever you try to barely supress them little bits and pieces - like recalcitrant 'e's - keep escaping and causing havoc. I've found there's no middle course with the things: you either have to stamp them out decisively and brutally, or else let them have their wicked way and give in completely.

I almost missed that last message. You're right, I shouldve just turned away from the computer and 'chuckled myself out'(so to speak)before beginning to type. *sigh*Ah these things that occur to one after the fact...

Actually, those sorts of things can be breathtakingly important, if you think about it. After all, the mathematical formula for displacement came about after the fact that someone overfilled the tub, and gravitational theory was worked out after the fact that an apple donged someone else on the head...so jot every after-the-fact down and keep it in a file to be opened only after your death when you can become a posthumous genius.

Hmm, in a sense the ultimate 'after-the-fact' or facts(one's life/existance being an undeniable fact & the various noted events being factual).

My point entirely. Besides the fact that being a posthumous hero has so much more cachet...it suggests one was an unassuming sort of fellow who could never have been accused of letting his heroism go to his head. Quite a superior kind of hero both in fact and after it.

So true, as is particularly the case with musicians & painters...also poets & writers.

Oh dear, the ending to that last post was a little ominous: I have no desire for posthumosity. I rather yearn to be acknowledged far and wide as the hero who singlehandedly broadened the canon of 17th century literature and consequently had roses strewn in her path everywhere she went. Woolf's "flowers on the grave" have always seemed to me a singular waste of money.

Or I might settle for being known as the person who introduced the word 'posthumosity' to the English language.

Well, just my but I'd prefer the former.