Towel Day on Lockdown

Tomorrow, May 25th, is the annual Towel Day celebration. Tomorrow is the day Douglas Adams fans normally gather to celebrate his life and works. Unfortunately, due to regulations keeping us from gathering together we cannot participate in the usual activities, we must think of alternative ways to mark this splendid occasion.

Carry A Towel

This is obvious. Any frood worth his salt knows where his towel is at all times since a towel, as we all know, is an incredibly useful thing:

A towel, [The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

You know where your towel is.

Wear Your Dressing Gown

Arthur Dent gets caught up in the events of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in his pyjamas and dressing gown. This Towel Day falls on a bank holiday Monday so it will be quite easy for us to spend the day thus attired. Dressing gowns seem to have gone out of fashion, but I still find them rather hoopy and offer a level of comfort that is quite reassuring during trying times.

The reassuring comfort of a well worn dressing gown.

Find a Nice Hot Cup of Tea

We all know how relaxing a nice hot cup of tea is, but froody fans also know that it provides an excellent source of strong Brownian motion. No matter how you deploy your nice hot cup of tea, it is one of the best ways to celebrate Towel Day while isolated.

Tea – more than just a beverage.

Three Pints at Lunchtime

Frequent hitchhikers know that teleportation is a difficult process to endure, so we need to have relaxed muscles. Three pints of bitter work marvellously for this purpose. Certainly many people think three pints at lunchtime can be excessive, but they have to remember that time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.

Three pints? It must be lunchtime.

Recite Vogon Poetry

Vogon poetry is admittedly the third worst poetry in the Universe. It’s not something you should recite amongst polite society, however, hitchhikers can hardly be considered polite society. There are many video conferencing systems available now so there is no excuse for a few of us to gather and show off our poetical skills. Just be sure there are no small children or animals in the room when you do.

Vogon poetry? Mind how you go.

A Viewing Party

We can also use video or teleconferencing systems to have viewing parties of either the tv series or film. Gather a few like minded froods and watch either of these being sure to take time to make comments of key moments and scenes. Compare them to the books or radio series.

My preferred viewing version.

A Listening Party

Relive the night of 8 March 1978 by listening to original radio broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Some people may think that a radio programme can’t be as exciting or interesting as television or film, but I would say that is a fallacy. The BBC has a long history of make great stories for radio and they are every bit as good as visual mediums, maybe more so since the listener has to actively engage their imaginations.

Remember when we first met this pack of geezers?

These are just a few ideas on how to celebrate Towel Day while in isolation. There are, I’m sure, many more that I haven’t thought of. However you decide to celebrate Towel Day during this difficult time be sure to make it as fun and joyous as you can. At the end of all this if you can remember where your towel is and have a smile then you will prove that you are indeed one of the hoopiest of froods.