Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> How many times had Lintilla been cloned?
>> Millions, as I recall, and, typically for Adams, a terribly specific
>> number.
> 
> 578 thousand million times. :-)

"Don't worry, the others aren't here right now."

>>> What was the ratio of Lintilla clones to lonely business executives
>>> that was maintained to keep the laws of supply and demand in balance?
>> Crikey, this merely rings a bell.
> 
> It's a bit of a trick question - the cloning machine was making 6 copies 
> of Lintilla for a Brantasvogon escort agency while another was making 500 
> lonely business executives to keep the laws of supply and demand working 
> profitably.  The ratio, therefore, is 6:500. :-)  The "trick" is that 
> most would think of the much larger number (578 thousand million)

Oh yes, I only recently noticed this joke, the first time I listened to 
the series I was a little young to get that one.

>>> Which escape capsule did Ford and Arthur get into in the Hagunnenon
>>> ship?
>> Ah, a fifty-fifty. Very generous! Um, left? My imagination says right
>> and for some reason my imagination always gets left and right wrong.
> 
> They got into the right-hand one.  Ford tells Zaphod "You and the others 
> take the left-hand one". :-)

Arse. Damn you, brain.

>>> In the end of the first episode, there's a chord played played after
>>> Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz issues his ultimatum to Ford and Arthur.  What
>>> is the piece of music that chord comes from, and who was the composer?
>> I thought it was a radiophonic effect. Sounds like an organ, so I'll say
>> Bach.
> 
> Nope, far, far too dissonant for Bach.  Its Lontano, from A Modern Mass 
> for the Dead by Ligeti.

Well, it was a wild stab in the dark. :)

>>> Listened to that bit on the drive in this morning.  Fit the Twelfth
>>> finished just as I pulled into my parking spot.
> 
> I always like when that happens, and it happens more often than it seems 
> it should by chance.
Well, with a 45 minute commute and 30 minute episodes it's bound to 
happen half the time, surely? :)

>> "I have worked out that if I stick my left hand into my right ear I can
>> electrocute myself."
>> "What?"
>> "Terminally."
>> "Is that so."
>> "I can do it at a moment's notice. Just give the word." "Just cool it,
>> Marvin."
>> ...
>> "I think I'll go and hide."
> 
> "Pausing only to reconstruct the whole infrastructure of integral 
> mathematics in his head, he went about his humble task, never thinking to 
> ask for reward, recognition or even a moment's ease from the terrible 
> pain in all the diodes down his left side.   Fetch Beeblebrox they say, 
> and forth he goes..."

"Fact: I ache, therefore I am. Or in my case, I am, therefore I ache. 
Oh, look. I appear to be lying at the bottom of a very deep, dark hole. 
That seems a familiar concept. What does it remind me of? Ah, yes. Life. 
Perhaps if I lie here and ignore it it'll go away again. Or perhaps not. 
To be perfectly frank with myself, if it didn't go away as a result of 
my falling thirteen miles through the air and a further mile through 
solid rock, I'm probably stuck with it for good. Why don't I climb out? 
Why don't I just lie here? Why don't I just go zootle wurdle? Does it 
matter? Even if it does matter, does it matter that it matters? Zootle 
wurdle, zootle wurdle..."

And so on.

Post a reply to this message