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If you have not read the book series by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy) you would not get the joke. Personally, I thought
it was the best of all the "Chicken" jokes.
In a nutshell: Aliens designed and built a gigantic organic computer
(the planet Earth) to solve the answer to the question, "What is the
answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?" The answer that was
given: Forty-two.
It is a sci-fi/fantasy book by a British author, hence British humor. I
think it is hilarious.
Hope that makes sense
Scott Browne
"There is absolutely no substitue for a genuine lack of preparation."
On Thu, 2 Mar 1995, Johnson, Mike C. @ SLG wrote:
> Although I laughed publicly at the road-crossing chicken jokes (thanks,
> Joyce) , I must admit to my colleagues in this private, intimate forum that
> I don't understand them all. (Color me red.) The Douglas Adams rationale
> (Forty-two) has me stumped.
> The only Adamses I am familiar with are Nick in Hemingway's stuff and Joe, a
> guy I went to High School with. Joe had a Fifty-seven Fairlane ragtop (boy,
> did we have fun), but that's as close as I can get numerically.
> Can somebody please explain the Douglas Adams line? Remember, I'm a
> hardware writer.
