The celtic mummies found in western China have gotten a lot of attention over the last few years, including a feature spread in National Geographic. Canadian Magazine Saturday Night has a wonderful follow-up article, going into the behind-the-scenes action the other articles have missed.

I’d wanted to write this yesterday, but just got too busy. I am a bit of a reader. I’ve always been that way, going to when I first learned to read. I was taught by my mother, even more of a reader than I am, before I even began kindergarden. I couldn’t begin to guess how many books I’ve read, and they’ve been from all over the Dewey Decimal System. When asked which author, living or dead, has influenced me the most, the answer has always been (well, since high school) Douglas Adams. So, yesterday’s news was terrible for me. I began, of course, with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read each of the volumes as it was written, devouring them all. Great classical literature, they’re not, but they don’t pretend to be. They’re full of loose ends and improbable plot twists. But they’re also my favorite. In these books, Adams showed me that humor can be found in the most mundane of things by turning them upside down, inside out. What’s the secret to flight? Throwing yourself at the ground and missing, of course! (The key is getting distracted by something right before you hit.) By the time I got to college, I knew that the series actually began as a BBC radio series and had watched the TV adaptation several times through. I’d wanted to do radio drama myself, and I discovered during orientation weekend that my new school had a free-form closed-circuit radio station that gave away DJ slots for the asking. One of my newly-met fellow freshmen (Shawn, whom I was to later marry to Gypsy) had the BBC scripts, so we got people together and did the show ourselves. I was in charge of the operation, mixed sound effects, and narrated ("… with Eric Wagoner as ‘The Book’…"). I still have the cassette tapes we made – they’re awful. But we had a great time, and people actually listened to us. From there we went on to do The Hobbit (I wrote the adaptation myself) and most of BBC’s version of The Lord of the Rings. Later, we did a few scripts from Firesign Theater and quite a few wonderful episodes of The Goon Show. Our senior year, we re-did Hitchhiker’s , and these were much, much better. A few weeks ago, I discovered that some of my friends who helped with that last go-around got a new bunch of folks together and did it again this Spring. Adams’ treatment of the Hitchhiker’s story taught me quite a few things. Unlike most stories that have been adapted for different media, Adams’ didn’t worry about canon. The four adaptations (there was a text-adventure computer game, as well) each began at the same point, but quickly diverged. Most of what happens in the radio series never appear in the books (and vice versa), and while the studios tried to keep the TV show true to the book, it too diverged. The game has its own storyline altogether. There’s a framework that kind of holds them altogether, but barely. His publishers were put off by this (“But the readers expect continuity!”), but Adams kept true to himself and we’re better for it. He wrote other books, of course. His two Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency book were a whole other sort of lunacy. I wished he-d written more in the series. Last Chance to See should be required reading for everyone – the scene where he recounts being served a pregnant river dolphin at a banquet made me cry and stands out as one of the most memorable passages I’ve ever read. He recently collaborated with Terry Jones (of Monty Python) on the fantastic multimedia (book, computer game, and website) Starship Titantic. He also wrote several episodes of Tom Baker-era Doctor Who. His humor style has greatly influenced mine. His unique way at looking at the world has influenced my vision. His refusal to get locked into a style, defined by publishers or our expectations, has helped me keep my options open. He will be missed.

Oh, it’s a sad, sad day. One of the greatest things about reading someone’s journal is you get to, for a little while, be that person. Or imagine it, anyway. It’s also one of the worst things. I’ve been reading Kaycee Nicole’s journal living colours (a diary of survival) since she began. Fresh out of high school, she had a terrible cancer. She documented the ups and downs and shared with us her incredible spirit. Just a few weeks ago, riding high from a successful bone marrow transplant, she looked like she’d won. Then she shared with us the news that while the cancer may have been beaten, the toll it took on her body was too much. The last couple weeks have been nearly too painful to read as she set about finishing life on her terms. Painful or not, I won’t be reading her story any longer. Yesterday, after writing an especially poignant entry, Kaycee passed away. I’m going home. As Marjorie said yesterday, I hate crying at work.

While I was away over the weekend, the garden decided it was time to harvest. Everything waited for me to get back, though the broccoli did open a bit. Last night I blanched and froze three quarts of snow peas and eight quarts of broccoli. The rutabegas are beggin’ to be pulled, too. It may have warmed up too much for the cauliflower, as they’re not forming heads yet. It’s been really hot, nearly ninety, and extremely dry this month. The summer seeds are sprouting much more slowly than they ought to.

I got email from The Britannica Boy! Over a year ago, I mentioned the Britannica Boy in passing, wondering where he’d gone off to. Mike Gunderloy of Larkfarm picked up the question for inclusion on his wanted page. It was revealed by one of his readers that the Britannica Boy was played by Donovan Freberg, son of comedy legend Stan Freberg. Over the weekend, after (I’m guessing) doing a vanity search, Donovan wrote me. I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing the email:

Watch who you call twirp… ;) --Donavan Freberg AKA- The Britannica Boy jeeze will I never live it down? I’m not really like that in real life…it’s called ACTING people

After nearly two years, this weblog has finally paid off. I got email from the Britannica Boy. (OK… to be fair [after all, I’m an actor, too], I got email from the actor who portrayed the Britannica Boy. Should Donovon ever do another vanity search, he’ll know that I empathize with him. Hey, Donovan, my college buddy Matt Goolsby does a killer impression [that nearly got himself killed] of the Britannica Boy. Or did, before he got old and fat.)

A Lament for Douglas Adams, by his friend Richard Dawkins.

Oh, of all the horrible things to come back to today. Douglas Adams, rest in peace.

A classified ad in the Flagpole, Athens’ alternative rag:

EARN BIG $$$. THIEF OF TIME. Best-selling author of Discworld series seeks swindler of seconds. Punctuality a must. Previous exp. w/spatial anomalies a + but not req. Reply: www.thiefoftime.net. THIEF OF TIME: The riotous new novel from Terry Pratchett. (AAN CAN).

That wacky Pratchett!

I’m off in the morning to Savannah to marry my good friends Steve and Amy. The wedding’s Saturday morning. Before that, we’ll eat luxuriously, ride a horse-drawn carraige through town, and sleep in a great B&B.; After that, we’ll fill ourselves with fresh crab and ride a boat to follow the dolphins. And I’m sure there’ll be other fun in there as well. I didn’t write the bulk of this ceremony, but when I get back I’ll post it for you all to read. Chris didn’t think my clothes were good enough for this wedding, so she saw to it that I have a whole new wardrobe. I don’t think I’ve had this many new clothes at one time since I first started wearing them.

There are two photo galleries that have been making the rounds this week that I have to share. The first is a series of color photographs taken in Russia in the early 1900s, before the revolution. These are probably the earliest color photos you hve ever seen. They’re being hosted by the Library of Congress and are incredible. The method used is facinating, too. It involved a triple-stacked camera, each lens with a green, red, or blue filter. The three negatives were produced on glass plates. To view them, three projectors was set up, again with three color filters. The images were aligned, producing vibrant full-color images. The Library of Congress has reproduced the technique for the web gallery (with some digital editing that does not detract from the effect). This is a must-see. The second is a series taken through a high-power microscope at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. These photos depict tiny machines about as small as a speck of dust. Miniscule gears and driveshafts and the like. There’s even microscopic steam engines. But what makes the photos are the dust mites that they let into the view for effect. Look at the monsters walking through the machinery and pretend it’s a atomic-era B movie.