Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:

"Ralph Mowery" wrote in
:

You have to be a science fiction fan to understand this.

From the movie Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Anyway there is a
super computer that has been working for 7 1/2 million years for the
answer of life and the answer is 42 which is 101010 in bianary.


I'm very familiar with HGGTTG and I still didn't understand what his
post was about. As to 42, I like the interpretation of life being 'all
at sixes and sevens', i.e. irrational, indeterministic, a big part of
the whole HHGTTG thing, and also of Adam's other work too.

Apparently Stephen Fry is one of the very few people (perhaps the only
one) to know the real, original derivation of 42, and why it was chosen,
but I like my idea partly because it's not one I have ever heard from
anyone else.


I'm enjoying this too much to stop, but I'll keep it short ant try to
entertain someone with it... Another Douglas Adams deduction of mine: "The
Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul", a Dirk Gently novel title.

One time listening to Radio 3, I heard an announcer speak of Berlioz' "Les
Nuits d'Été" (Summer Nights).

Not speaking French well at all, I misheard that one. I heard "Le nuit dé
thé" (The night of tea!) While pondering that bit of silliness, I also
thought of "L'ennui de thé", based on a bit of French I actually did know.

And then it dropped on me with several of the attributes of the Pan-galactic
gargle blaster, a vivid realisation that Douglas Adams had probably been in
exactly this position, but with greater imagination than mine by far, he came
up with "The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul".