Towels

A towel is about the most massively useful thing any interstellar hitchhiker can carry. For one thing it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth on the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; sunbathe on it on the marble beaches of Santraginus V; huddle beneath it for protection from the Arcturan Megagnats as you sleep beneath the stars of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (which is such a mindboggingly 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 clean enough.

Much has been written on the subject of towels, most of which stresses the many practical functions they can serve for the modern hitchhiker. Two seminal books are Werdle Sneng's compendious tome, "Bath Sheets In Space", which is far too large to carry but sits magnificently on fashionable coffee tables, and Frat Gad's handbook, "Heavily Modified Face Flannels", an altogether terser work for masochists.

However, only the Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy explains that the towel has a far more important psychological value, in that anyone who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against mind-boggling odds, win through, and still know where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch-hiking slang, as in: "Hey, you sass [1] that hoopy[2] Ford Prefect? There's a frood[3] who really knows where his towel is."

                -- Douglas Adams, "The HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy"

On Friday May 11th, 2001, Douglas Adams died of a heart attack at the tragically young age of 49.

When an appropriate tribute was discussed among fans on the internet, the most popular suggestion was Towel Day, during which they would carry their towel with them at all times as a gesture of respect. The inaugural event was held on May 25th, and was deemed a great success.

While I did take a particularly garish specimen to work, I'm sorry to say I left it hanging in the office for much of the day. In the evening, however, it accompanied me to a gig, where it adorned the front of my drumkit.

Since then it has reprised its performance at many of our gigs, and has proved a welcome addition to my gig bag. Apart from its usual decorative function it has also been rolled up and used as a pillow, wrapped around me for warmth in the van when I didn't bring a jacket on a night which turned unexpectedly cold, and even been used as a stage towel on one memorable night when it was discovered that my regular (ie. purely functional) stage towel had been left behind. [4] Truly the towel is indeed a massively useful item.

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[1]   Know, meet, be aware of, have sex with.
[2]   Really together guy.
[3]   Really amazingly together guy.
[4]   Memorable because it was sitting in my sticks bag at the time.