Thinking (Deep Thoughts)

Wear the Towel, Carry the Lilac . . .

Today is an extremely important day in the Argh Universe because it’s Wear the Lilac and Carry Your Towel Day. And this year is especially poignant because we lost the guy who wrote the lilacs, Terry Pratchett, and the guy who voiced the robot who worked for the people who carried the towels, Alan Rickman. (more…)

Wear the Lilac Towel Day

Yes, I know it’s also Memorial Day, and that’s important so put a poppy on your towel, but this year wearing the lilac is even more important because it’s our first year without Sir Terry.

We wear the lilac on May 25 in honor of Sir Terry Pratchett, a victim of Alzheimers who refused to become a victim. The lilac comes from Pratchett’s Night Watch novel, but it has become a symbol for fighting the disease.

We wear a towel on May 25 because Douglass Adams told us to in the Hitchhiker’s Guide. It’s the most massively useful thing an interstellar space traveller can have, plus it creates a great impression, hence the expression “That guy really knows where his towel is.”

We wear the poppy on memorial day because of Flanders Fields and because people who don’t remember the devastation of war are compelled to repeat it. We need a LOT MORE POPPIES in the world.

Have a wonderful lilac towel and poppy day.

May 25: Wear the Lilac Towel Day

May 25th, as all fans of Douglass Adams should know, is Towel Day, the day to flaunt your towel in memory of an amazing author. From Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

A towel, it 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-bogglingly 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.

Adams’ excellent advice about panic (don’t) and the answer to the ultimate meaning of life (42) is second (and third) in importance only to knowing where your towel is at all times. He also understood deadlines:

But mostly I like his approach to life:

and

But that’s not all! May 25th is also, as any fan of Terry Pratchett should know, Wear the Lilac Day. From Wikipedia:

The 25th of May is quietly celebrated by the survivors of the People’s Revolution, which ended the reign of Lord Winder. They wear a sprig of lilac and gather at the Small Gods Cemetery to honour the Watchmen who fell: Cecil Clapman, Ned Coates, Dai Dickins, John Keel, Horace Nancyball, Billy Wiglet, and (albeit temporarily) Reg Shoe. . . . The slogan of the People’s Revolution is “Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard-Boiled Egg!”

Pratchett is insanely quotable and even more insanely readable . . .

And I especially like his approach to drafting . . .

And his approach to aging . . .

After Pratchett’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Wear the Lilac Day is now used to raise awareness and funding for Alzheimer’s research.

Because of this, today is the day that Argh Nation Wears the Lilac Towel in honor of two great authors who have brought immense pleasure and truly weird characters into our world. We shall never forget (although we may be a little absent-minded at times and are easily distracted).