{"id":154496680,"date":"2025-01-17T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T13:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=154496680"},"modified":"2025-01-17T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T13:30:36","slug":"friday-links-life-the-universe-and-all-the-fish-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=154496680","title":{"rendered":"Friday Links: Life, The Universe, and All The Fish Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Look, there\u2019s somewhere you can take us where we can have fun…we can get drunk and maybe listen to some extremely evil music.” – Douglas Adams, ‘Life, The Universe, and Everything’<\/h2>

Ford Prefect might say that time is an illusion; lunchtime, doubly so. It\u2019s true, tooo, but it\u2019s also something you say two bong rips deep during freshman year. Do you know what I, a man who is going to eat chicken wings and Caesar salad and watch a movie with my spouse later, say? Hey dude, happy Friday. <\/p>

What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p>

I mean, you already know. Reading a series means this false tease of an opener paragraph is a bit like a magician pulling a sheet off of a rabbit shape while everyone in the audience goes \u201cit\u2019s a rabbit, you jagoff\u201d and then the magician says, \u201cah, but you see, it is a hare.\u201d Or something. Honestly sounds like something the Elon wing of Hitchhiker\u2019s <\/em>fandom would do. Hey, speaking of, I had blast with Life, The Universe, and Everything<\/em> and So Long and Thanks For All The Fish<\/em>. <\/p>

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Life, The Universe, and Everything<\/strong><\/em> by Douglas Adams: <\/strong>you have to admire the way what you previously thought were throwaway jokes become major plot points. The bowl of petunias saying \u201cnot again,\u201d the bit about flying. There\u2019s cricket writing in here that should have Douglas Adams talked about the same way David Foster Wallace and tennis get talked about. The sheer amount of plot movement and action reminds you that of course Arthur hasn\u2019t had a chance to change out of his dressing gown yet, which is very funny. Trillian gets to shine the way she deserves at the end. Glad to see Slartibartfast again. Love the escalation of improbability fields to bistromatics.<\/p>

So Long and Thanks For All the Fish<\/strong><\/em> by Douglas Adams: <\/strong>is it possible to think a book is exactly what a series needs, when it needs, and is a hell of a lot of fun, without being, well, all that good of a book? This one sees Arthur Dent finally change his clothes\u2014that\u2019s right, Earthman gets to return to Earth. How the Earth is back, I either missed it or it wasn\u2019t explained. But he falls in love with a woman named Fenchurch, who is plagued by memories of Earth\u2019s destruction as well as the events of the previous book. It\u2019s a very fun little love story, but\u2014no Zaphod, no Trillian, very little Marvin, and undercooked Ford. The ending is a touch rushed, and it kinda gave me the feeling of when they shoot parts two and three of a movie back-to-back, and so neither ends up being a complete movie. Interested to see where the next book goes. Again, I had fun<\/em> with this one, but it just didn\u2019t feel finished. <\/p>

LINKS! <\/strong><\/p>

Something to listen to while you browse? How about we pair all this sci-fi and future stuff with an ancient instrument? It\u2019s nine years old, but it\u2019s new to me\u2014here\u2019s Rahim AlHaj on Tiny Desk. <\/p>

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