Towel Day

Since it is Towel Day... Damn, I still miss Douglas Adams.

I've been a fan of Adams' work from early on when German public radio broadcast a version of his Hitchhiker's Guide audio drama in 1982.

I was lucky enough to catch all episodes of this first German broadcast on cassette and I listened to these tapes quite a lot and was then elated to find his books, first in German translation and then later on in their original.

Adams' humor was a guiding star through my teenage years and certainly helped to form my outlook on life.

In the early 90s, during my university years, I had a chance to see him live when he gave a reading in Munich - from what I remember there was only one show, and me and some of my buddies had lined up early, so we sat all the way up front in the first row of a packed house (the old Schlachthof in Munich).

It's a show that I still now, more than 30 years later, remember fondly. When Adams came on stage, he looked impossibly tall from our seats in the first row. He was in a great mood, reading excerpts from Last Chance and scenes from the Hitchhikers. His voice acting for Marvin that evening will be forever Marvin's voice in my head.

He talked a lot about his then-recent travels for the Last Chance book and his passion for the protection of disappearing species was intense and infectious.

It was a great evening with a mind that burned brighter than the sun.

He was forever curious, fascinated by technological progress and a great observer and commenter on the failings of humanity.

He would have a field day looking at us now.