The late English author Douglas Adams would be celebrating his birthday today, if he were not, well, late.
He wrote, among other things, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, a semi-science fictional but 100% hysterical novel that gave rise to a sequel, and then a trilogy, and then a total of five books in what Adams called "The Increasingly Inaccurately Named" Hitchhiker's Trilogy. He also wrote a pair of novels in a similar vein about Dirk Gently, a "holistic" detective. His humor is very much in the Monty Python vein, biting and satirical but always loving at the same time.
Some choice quotes from www.quotationspage.com:
"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."
"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes."
"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear."
"Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast."
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
" 'Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of.' "
If you've never read Adams, I thoroughly recommend him. As long as you can at least tolerate science fiction, Hitchhiker's is a very funny, quick read.
Love the airport one.
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