Today is Wear the Lilac Day and also Towel Day in honor of two of the greatest writers of our time, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, who gave us Discworld and the Hitchhiker’s Guide and many other wonderful worlds. It’s a time to remember things worth fighting for (“Reasonably priced love!”) and not to panic. It’s also Cherry Saturday, but that happens every week; the Lilac/Towel Day is special.
Every year when I write this post, my heart clutches a little at what we’ve lost with their deaths, but as Pratchett once wrote, “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” Their names are still spoken, their books are still cherished, and today is the day to remember them and read.
I’m going back to Thief of Time.
Also there’s this in six days:
Greetings to all!! I used to have a lilac brooch, it was costume jewelry but I loved it. Nobody wears lilac where I live so I can’t spot my cohorts wishing everyone a very good day.
Two excellent actors. Michael Sheen is fab in The Good Fight. So diabolical.
My lilac tree was in full bloom this year. Beautiful. Heady scent.
I’m suffering a unique torture in the book I started yesterday. I’m enjoying the story and characters and all…but it’s also in 1st and 2nd person at the same time, and the framing device to enable this abomination destroys my immersion every few pages.
It would be so easy for this exact prose to be 3rd person limited, too!
“Let’s make the entire story a flashback”: not even once.
I just read a book like that and thought it was very interesting: “The Light We Lost” by Jill Santopolo. (The German Version which my husband picked up from a Sales table.) It had some flaws at the end, but I didn’t mind the way it was done in 1st and 2nd Person at all.
I wore lilac-ish but just couldn’t carry the towel, had a handkerchief instead. Alas, I’m not as hoopy a frood as I’d like to be.
It’s been a day where I went to an Agricultural show and spent far too much money. It was mostly on clothes I’d actually wear, so maybe it’s ok. Nothing beats a merino wool long-sleeved spencer for winter. Pure frivolity was on a skin serum that might not work but could be worth the try. Argh.
I also bought kale, parsley, celery, and baby potatoes from the local market. There will be a kick-ass potato salad soon. And a spinach and kale soup. Mmmm.
The only connection I have with Lilacs right now is that my lilac bush has a single bloom on it. The story behind it is that my great grandmother lived in upstate Maine where the weather can be miserable and the only flowers she was sure of having were from a rose bush and a lilac bush. My father gave me starters from each which I have taken with me from house to house as my life changed over the years. This is the first time I have lived somewhere long enough for the lilac bush to get big enough to produce flowers and there is a single bloom(spray?) on it. The Rose bush has produced blossoms right from the get go!
Well I almost always wear something purple these days. And I have a ‘California lilac’ (ceanothus) in my front yard. Its main spring bloom is over but it still pops out a little violet greeting from time to time.
Haven’t read any Pratchett ever (I know!! I’m so behind!!) but will take a shot at Good Omens on Prime. Once we finish watching Catch-22. Two episodes to go, the fourth one traumatized me and I needed a break.
I’ve never read the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’. So that will be my next book. Maybe I’l embroider a towel with lilac to carry.
Did a search for ‘carry the towel’ and the Argh 2016 post came up on the first page.
RIP Alan Rickman.
We are just getting the lilac blossoms appearing here in Maine, so I will cut some and set them in some water. I’ll take a shower, because I have a towel, so I won’t panic.
Reeeally looking forward to the “Good Omens.”
My yard is full of lilac bushes–they were a pleasant surprise the first spring after I bought the house and seem to be having a banner year this year. (They must like all the rain.)
Loving forward to Good Omens.
The 25th has been and gone here, so I’m too late for the lilac and the towel. But as a result of having a totally awful day yesterday, I picked up Guards! Guards! for a reread late in the afternoon. So that counts.
My lilac bush refuses to bloom. Does it count if I wear the leaves?
I have no lilacs. My towels are in the laundry. I will have to settle for finishing Patriot Games and starting Guards! Guards! I have nearly all of Sir Terry’s books, but only ever enjoyed HGttG. The sequels left me cold. Not my cuppa.
I’m not following you — (well, my post is but I’m not) I can’t figure out what HGttG refers to. Can you enlighten us?
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
No towel for me today and my lilacs aren’t in bloom yet. Today I remember my grandfather who passed away in 2004. Today is sad but tomorrow is happy as it’s my 16th wedding anniversary.
As Office Wench Cherry observed, HGttG is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, from whence the “Always Carry a Towel” theme derives. I shouldn’t have tacked that to the Pratchett laden sentence. It may have been misleading.
The lilac thing comes from “Nightwatch” by Pratchett, where it is a commemorative custom for survivors of the very strange civil war. No spoilers.
Hitchhikers is Douglas Adams.
I discovered Hitchhiker’s Guide when I was travelling in ’76-77 (thank you, used book stores!) and later saw the series on either BBC or PBS. It’s a good thing that it was so funny because the special effects ( particularly Zaphod Beeblebrox’s (sp?) second head) were so lame. But I loved those books enough to cart them around with me through many moves and several states. I no longer own any copies of them, but they trigger many fond memories.
Apartment dweller that I am, I have no lilacs I can wear, but I was enjoying them on my walk home this evening. They, along with irises and peonies, are some of my fondest memories of growing up in the suburbs.
I ended up being able to snip a bunch of lilac blossoms from our shrubs just in time, since we had a late snow and that was the end of the early blooms.
I’ve got them drying for an art resin piece I’m going to make. : )
It was 104F (40C) yesterday, and also, I’m giving an ear to conspiracy theorists who say half the world’s problems is because people are actively trying to bring about End Times. But I don’t think those people will win . . . at least not before Good Omens is broadcast. I’m hoping to binge on Sunday and see the whole set.
I spread the word about both days as I was out and about.
And I really thought Good Omens was going to be out in the 25th.
I have no lilac this year as I cut the bush back hard last year and it only flowers on two year old wood. So next year for that.
I bought the script book for Good Omens last week and read it. I don’t love the story as much as I did the book, but I’m waiting to see the series as I am sure the brilliance of Michael Sheen and David Tennant will add to it enormously.