* FANTASTIC NEWS: watch the TV coverage the Toronto froods managed to get! (mixed French & English) Kudos to all involved and especially to spokesbeing Mark Roberts and TV personality David Baeta, you did a stellar job there!

* So what’s up in Toronto? A Towel Day photo scavenger hunt/pub crawl! Paul Smith writes: “May 25 at 5 pm downtown – Wear a bathrobe, grab your towel, some cash and a TTC multiuse pass, we are pub crawling”. “Indigo at Bay and Bloor has agreed to host us between 5 – 6 pm on May 25th. We will use this as a rally point for the pub crawl and / or photo scavenger hunt. Remember to bring your towel and digital camera. Keep your eyes open at downtown Toronto Indigo locations for Douglas Adams displays a week in advance of Towel Day.” More info on the Facebook page.

* Cherry Vega, photographer and artist, has made this snazzy iPhone wallpaper from a poster she created for a Towel Day photoshoot. Douglas Adams was a huge Apple fan and we can imagine that he might have liked the iPhone.

* Ottawans can party at the Zaphod Beeblebrox club where they can dance to the music of Kalle Mattson, The Darcys, Life in 2D and Zaphod’s Hoopiest Magrathean DJs “Twiin and guests”. Zaphod’s Pan Galactic Bar Staff will be catering to your fluid intake needs. Doors 8pm, age 19+/general admission, address: 27 York Street.

* In Edmonton, AB, Laura from the Edmonton Sci-Fi Appreciation Society is hosting a “Geeking out” meetup at Tim Hortons at 19:00. She states: “I’ve booked this one for Towel Day because as a sci-fi group it’s out duty to meet on Towel Day”! You should probably bring your towel, but people can just sit around and hang out talking about their favorite Sci-fi related topics. You can RSVP on Meetup.com

* In Vancouver Gianfranco Latrofa and Serena organize a meetup and h2g2 movie viewing at in La Fontana Caffe (3701 Hastings St, Burnaby, BC). They meet at 19:15 and will be easy to spot (hint: towels).

* Also in Vancouver a friendly bunch is meeting for tea at The Secret Garden. It’s at 5559 West Boulevard and will be running between 11:00 and 13:00. Will writes: “Bring towels and have a long, dark tea with us”.

* In Calgary, Joel Palenychka will be heading out to The Joyce on 4th Street for a pint after work, around 19:00.

* Dylan Spencer, author of the webcomic “The Earth Explodes” has drawn Deep Thought as a tribute for Towel Day. Coincidentally it’s also his 42nd comic!

Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See.

“In fact the kakapo is a bird that in some ways reminds me of the British motorbike industry. It had things its own way for so long that it simply became eccentric. The motorbike industry didn’t respond to market forces because it wasn’t particularly aware of them. It built a certain number of motorbikes and a certain number of people bought them and that was that. It didn’t seem to matter much that they were noisy, complicated to maintain, sprayed oil all over the place and had their own very special way, as T.E. Lawrence discovered at the end of his life, of going round corners. That was what motorbikes did, and if you wanted a motorbike, that was what you got. End of story. And, of course, it very nearly was the end of the story for the British industry when the Japanese suddenly got the idea that motorbikes didn’t have to be that way. They could be sleek, they could be clean, they could be reliable and well-behaved. Maybe then a whole new world of people would buy them, not just those whose idea of fun was spending Sunday afternoon in the shed with an oily rag, or marching on Aqaba.”

—

You see, the young birds that we’ve hatched here don’t come to sexual maturity at the same time, so when the females start getting sexy, the males are not ready to handle it. The females are bigger and more belligerent and often beat the males up. So when that happens, we collect semen from Pink, and…’

‘How do you do that? asked Mark.

‘In a hat.’

‘I thought you said in a hat.’

`That’s right. Carl puts on this special hat, which is a bit like a rather strange bowler hat with a rubber brim, Pink goes mad with desire for Carl, flies down and fucks the hell out of his hat.’

`What?

‘He ejaculates into the brim. We collect the drop of semen and use it to inseminate a female.’

`Strange way to treat your mother.’

‘He’s a strange bird. But he does serve a useful purpose in spite of being psychologically twisted.’

- Douglas Adams

By Zonk on will-go-well-with-the-simpsons-motif

interstellar_donkey writes “Despite the recent brouhaha over the renaming of 4th Ave after César Chávez, a Portland group is pushing to rename a local street after the late writer Douglas Adams. The street? Why, 42nd Ave, of course. According to their website, the renaming will reflect Portlanders’ commitment to the arts, respect for the environment, desire to provide technological access to all, their passion to further education to all people, and most importantly remind Portlanders DON’T PANIC. This appears to be a serious movement, with preliminary paperwork already in the works.”

It isn’t very good. Perhaps you could improve it.

The uninitiated may appreciate knowing that the author’s full name was Douglas Noël Adams, hence DNA.

I hope we will get a photo of your towel-carrying self in Thursday’s entry. Naturally, given the day of the week upon which Towel Day is to fall, the following quotation is obligatory:

“This must be Thursday,” said Arthur musing to himself, sinking low over his beer, “I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”