On this day and date, I'd like us all to remember Douglas Adams.
Why this day and date?
Because it's random, and therefore, by its very nature, improbable as it may be, must have some sort of huge connection to DA's life.
Maybe it's the date he got married, or was born, or hell, I don't know, thought up of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I've been thinking a lot about improbability lately. Some of it probably has to do with the fact that I'm re-reading the Guide, but more so because of the television I watched yesterday.
I was just relaxing in front of the TV set (again, as I mentioned in my last entry, not something I often do), watching an Israeli drama about a secular wife having to deal with her husband suddenly becoming an orthodox Jew--interesting show, by the way--and at one point in the episode, their daughter decides to go to a demonstration for animal rights. Her boyfriend or something comes along to pick her up. I keep on watching when suddenly...
Hey. Her boyfriend. Long, curly hair, thick lips. I know that guy! He is, in fact a very good friend of mine! That's Costa! Cool. Nice to see he's acting, haven't spoken to him in a while.
The show ends and another begins--this time, it's a show about Israeli art and culture. Interesting people, mostly movie makers and authors, in interviews about interesting subjects with an intelligent interviewer. The show's layout is based on a formula some physicist came up with--
It is enough to know 5.8 people in the entire world, to "know" every single person through them, as a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend ECT.
During that show, I saw my cinema teacher and a few other people I know, which was both fun and fitting. So it got me to thinking--how probable is that?
How many people you know and have actually spoken to do you see each time you switch on your television set?
I'll give you another example--one I'm very fond of.
I was 13, or 14, and mucking about with an IM program called Odigo. Through it, I met a girl my age, with Iron Maiden listed under her interests. Shiran, she was called.
After a few months of IMing back and forth, we decided to meet up in Dizingoff Centre, in Tel Aviv.
Remember, Shiran is just a random person I met online.
Dizingoff Centre is something of a young freak haven.
It's where all the punks and Goths and metalheads come to, from all over Israel. It's not unusual to start conversations with random people there, as long as they look freaky enough.
Before I arrived, Shiran started a conversation with a random person called Tali, and introduced us. We enjoyed each other's company, so we exchanged ICQ numbers. Tali was from a small settlement near Tel Aviv.
After a while, I started showing an interest in the Goth scene. I started hunting around for "gothic music" and "gothic websites", but lacking a 'guide', I was petty lost.
Eventually, I asked Tali, who seemed to know something about music, what good gothic music she recommends.
She said she herself wasn't really into gothic stuff, but hang on she'll send me a playlist compiled by a girl called Taly (same phonetic sound as Tali, different spelling, to help make the story easier to follow) from some settlement called Nirit.
"Wait, what, Nirit? That's really close to where I live, maybe she goes to my school! Do you have her ICQ contact?"
She did and that's how I met up with Taly from my own school. From one random person to another random person to a fellow student.
Now, this'd be strange enough by itself, but it just gets better.
It later turns out that both Taly's and my own grandmothers were both friends in the same village in Bulgaria before they each, separately, immigrated to Israel.
So yep, it seems the improbability field has me.
Please share your own improbable stories in Douglas Adams' memory, either here or in your own journals.
I'm sure you all have some, and I’m sure they're all interesting.
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