science – yadadarcyyada

Hearing exciting episode titles: Some of the Things That Molecules Do, Big Bang, When Knowledge Conquered Fear, Standing Up In The Milky Way…I can hardly contain myself.

Set your clocks (don’t forget to turn them ahead an hour for those affected by Daylight Savings Time), because Sunday March 9, 2014 marks the start of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by the funny and brilliant Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, produced by deeply disturbed and hilarious Seth MacFarlane, and of course with the help of the exceptional Ann Druyan (co-creator of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and widow of the late, uberbrilliant Carl Sagan).

I just got a shiver thinking of the Spaceship of the Imagination from the original series and my mind is racing thinking about the possibilities for the new Spaceship of the Imagination. I know, how geeky am I?

I was a teenager when this was on TV, well, just barely a teenager, more a mature toddler, a middle-aged fetus really. I most likely wasn’t even born when this aired in 1980.

Cosmos wasn’t for everyone. Some people considered it dry or difficult. Some people were wrong. It was awesome. You could feel your mind swelling as you watched it, your jaw slack, just waiting to see what mysteries would be revealed to you. Cosmos was a way to get people excited about science, discoveries, the Universe itself, a way to bring people wary of science, to, it’s magic.

My brother and I sat glued to the TV watching episodes with titles like: Who Speaks for Earth?, The Backbone of Night, One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue, The Persistence of Memory, Heaven and Hell, etc. And my brother would add all kinds of information because he’s all super geniusy, sort of like Mr. Peabody except not a canine, so not really like him at all, except smart. And my parents would wonder how they produced such nerds.

So you can see how when I heard Cosmos was back my exocrine glands were all like, what? and I was like, you guys stop drooling it’s just a TV show; and they were all like, who are you to tell us when we can salivate Ms. Pavlov and I was like, you got me there guys.

I’m thrilled to see science rushing through TV and movies. Now we have to get off our duffs and further explore that final frontier. We can’t just live in virtual worlds, we have to save this one and find others.

Whether you’re a slobbery nerd who may or may not have tried to snog Capt Kirk on the TV set, or dreamed of marrying The Doctor, of Doctor Who (of course the Tom Baker one), or thought Carl Sagan was dreamy in a metaphysical way, or you just want to see a fascinating and informative show, tune in March 9, 2014 on Fox or FX or National Geographic, etc. and observe the odyssey unfold.

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Del Ray)

I can still read this and laugh so hard it hurts. Contains one of the best scenes ever written, in the tea house with the biscuits, I’m giggling just thinking about it; if you haven’t read it, read it just for that. What am I saying, if you haven’t read it?

One of the most entertaining books ever written and apparently inspired by a drunken evening in Austria with a Hitchhikers Guide to Europe in his pocket, sounds about right.

Adams also wrote and acted briefly in Monty Python and wrote a few Doctor Who scripts.

Worked on video games.

I have no words.

A delight to the gray matter and darn you Douglas Adams, you’re one of the reasons my laugh lines are so deep! No, I forgive you and miss you. In this case as entertaining as the on screen offerings of this have been, the book is so much better. All 4 (or 5 depending on your belief system and the hour of day) books in the trilogy are fantastically mythically rereadworthy.

Although Adams left too early at 49, his written works, his activist causes and his understanding of absurdity of it all remains to entertain and amaze us.

And don’t forget a towel is one of the most useful things you can carry with you on your journeys so celebrate towel day May 25th.

Douglas Adams‘ present location: Highgate Cemetery, Highgate, United Kingdom