On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:24:06 +0000, Bill Pragnell wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:19:42 +0000, Bill Pragnell wrote:
>> 
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>>>> 2^2677009:1 against.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> (Name that number!)
>>>>> Picking up Ford and Arthur in the ship (whose name I can't recall)
>>>>> in Hitchhiker's.... ?
>>>> Close enough; it's the odds of being picked up by a passing spaceship
>>>> in deep space within the 30 seconds it takes to asphyxiate.
>>> Surely that's an Islington phone number ? ;-)
>> 
>> It is also that, except for in the film, where the odds were changed
>> for some bizzare reason.
> 
> Not bizarre; the area codes in London have changed several times since
> 1979 and the numbers were altered to produce a plausible London phone
> number.

Sure, that would make sense, except that the odds as given are somewhat 
iconic - there are certain details about H2G2 that shouldn't change IMHO; 
that's one of them.  Other things, like the addition of entire new 
scenes, however, is part of the H2G2 "culture".

Jim

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