"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
- Douglas Adams

In light of the date being May 25th, I decided to write a tribute to the great Douglas Adams, known primarily for authoring The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Today's date, May 25th --

Wait a second. You're telling me that it isn't the twenty-fifth of May anymore? Well, let me try this again.

As a tribute to the late Douglas Adams, who was never one to adhere to deadlines, once having to be locked in a hotel suite with his editor in order to finish So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, I will miss my self-imposed deadline for publishing this entry, and post it on the twenty-sixth of May, rather than the twenty-fifth. In other words, I left writing this to the last minute, then scrambled to finish it, then wasn't happy with the result, then conceded, "oh, to heck with it! This will have to do." I then realized that by posting this on a Friday evening, I will be casting this entry out into a cruel and unforgiving world of entries proclaiming "OMG! Celabratoin Fore!!!!!11!" among other things. We shall see how well the great Douglas Adams stands up against all in this dog-eat-dog world of bloggery. The fact remains that this entry isn't late; it was all part of a grand scheme, and everything is proceeding as I have foreseen it.

With that out of the way, perhaps it is time to address what some of you may be wondering. Namely, what exactly is so important about May 25th anyway? Well, you see, May 25th has been designated as Towel Day, a day on which fans commemorate Douglas Adams by carrying a towel with them throughout the day.

My praise for Douglas Adams knows no bounds. His myriads of eccentric characters were always unpredictable and entertaining, and usually accompanied by an average man who is thoroughly confused by the events unfolding around him, serving to ground the reader and provide a sympathetic angle amidst all of the bizarre personalities. His strange plot twists managed to consistently smack me upside the head with unconventional logic and forced me to spend extended periods of time looking up from the book in awe.

Douglas Adams' foray into philosophy and the answer to life, the universe, and everything is infamous. And the search for the meaning of the question continues...

Where would we be without such great concepts and inventions like the Infinite Improbability Drive, the Bistromathic Drive, the Somebody Else's Problem field, and the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? Well, I suppose we would be in the same place as we are today, since we have none of these things, but they are brilliant and entertaining ideas nonetheless.

In my opinion, Douglas Adams' mockery of humanity and its truly bizarre tendencies is the best aspect of all of his works. It never ceases to amaze me how Adams is able to show perfectly normal people acting in a perfectly normal fashion, yet make their words or their actions look ridiculous to the point where I have to sit back and laugh at how absurd people truly are.

So here's to Douglas Adams, author, dramatist, technologist, environmental activist, philosopher, and great mind. Thanks for showing us the importance of the towel, the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Thanks for making me, a misanthropic teenager who frequently laments about how useless my peers are, take a look around, laugh, and sigh, "well, they're only human. It's really not their fault, nor is it my fault." Thanks for making me think while simultaneously making me laugh. Thanks for spinning my head in circles and twisting my brain into a position as impossible as Richard MacDuff's sofa. Thanks for making the world funny again, in an intelligent and insightful manner.

So long Douglas Adams, and thanks for all the fish!

And if you're wondering what ol' Bobby Fed is doing here, you would be correct to assume that it's a gratuitous Boba Fett image.

Controversial Special Edition Update!: As jkthunder pointed out, it is clear that Boba Fett is wearing a towel on his shoulder. So that confirms it, folks. What's more pursuasive than me telling you to follow Boba Fett's example? And if that's not enough, you can always look at him as a scary bounty hunter who is coercing you to carry a towel.

So the next time May 25th rolls around, make sure you know where your towel is. Until next time,

Don't panic.

And since this is, after all, a Star Wars blog, may the force be with you.