Chris and I listened to Douglas Adams’ posthumously published ‘The Salmon of Doubt’ on the way home from our holiday weekend jaunt. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

The funniest by far, for a technojunkie like me, was his declaration of war on Dongly Things. This piece is entirely too funny for choosing selected quotes – I tried, but kept ending up with mass quantities of pasted text. Go read it; you’ll like it, I say.

Also included in the ‘Salmon of Doubt’ is The Little Computer that Could. Another ragingly funny piece. This is another one that’s impossible to pull a quotable nibble from – the before and after is so much a part of the funny bit. No, I tried, I just can’t do it, you’ll have to go and read the entire piece. It won’t take long, and it will make you smile, I promise. You might even learn something.

But, there are a few well-known quotations I suppose I could mention – after all, someone else has already done the dirty deed of taking the little bite completely out of context, so I suppose it’s alright if I do, too:

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. [Mostly Harmless, 1993]

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. [Last Chance to See, 1990]

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.