Douglas Adams, 42, and 4th grade

When I was in 4th grade, way back when personal computers consisted of the infamous Apple II E, and that green text on black screen we all remember. Funny enough, there are places on the net you can go to see this screen - oh the memories. During this time we had what was called Book-mobiles. Now a days, they have these things, but it seems to be only a kid's book purchasing catalog that happens to be given out by the schools. And if you thumb throuhg it, you find yourself looking at more toys than books.

No, this was a real "little-bus". This was a grand thing for us kids, and it was so cool to walk onto a bus that was tricked out with books galore, it was a mobile library. So my 9-year-old self walked into this bus, and looked directly at an intriguing book with a green weird no-eyes sphere with arms. It was called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. What a fantastic find, and it was only $2 above what my mother had given me. After a bit of wheeling and dealing with the only barganing chip I had - doing other kid's homework, I had in my hands the book of a lifetime. I sat down to read it, and had no idea what the hell it was talking about.

First there's the destruction of earth (alweays a good way to start a book). Then there's evil aliens, a fish that goes in your ear to translate everything, a robot that can outthink anything, and a cow who suggests what part of him you should eat. Wow!!!!

This, of course, was the 2nd part of the 5 book trilogy: Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Restraunt...., Life the Universe and Everything, Thanks for all the fish, and Mostly harmless. With these books this one man changed the way the world looked at space travel, aliens, hitch hiking, translation, other people on earth, super bypasses, and the number 42! Yes, the number 42. The answer to the ultimate question, which we were going to know the question; but, the big computer named Earth, was destroyed just before it gave us all the answer.

I would suggest all of you to go look up the signifigance of this number. It is bone chilling. Also checkout douglasadams.com, hg2g.com, for even more info.

Most importantly - kind of - this man who suddenly died of a heart attack in 2000, gave this blogger the understanding at the tender age of 9:

WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO WRITE! WE WILL CREATE THOSE STORIES INTO THE ATMOSPHERE; AND SIP A NICE MERLOT AS WE WATCH THE UNIVERSE EXPLODE IN THE COMFY SEATS OF THE RESTRAUNT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE.

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