AUSTRALIA

• At Melbourne University, on the day before Towel Day, the Cosmic Hitchhikers Appreciation Society held a free barbecue. It was held at the Physics Courtyard from 13:00-14:00. People were encouraged to bring towels! More info about CHAS is available here.
• Hitchhiking in the vicinity of Northam? Forty two drinks were on offer at the Avon Bridge Hotel for invited guests, all other froods were welcome to celebrate the fabulous Douglas Adams. People were encouraged to bring a towel or wear a dressing gown.
• In the Brisbane area, the Bingo Bitches ("a punk-rock inspired, alternative bingo for the younger crowd") celebrated Towel Day at the Coorparoo Bowls Club. From their mailing list: "Wednesday 25 May is a very special day for H2G2 nuts out there like me. If you don’t know what the hell H2G2 is, you don’t have enough geek-chic on. It’s the epic "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" by the late frood Douglas Adams, who certainly knew where his towel was. Do you? Anyways, we’re celebrating Intergalactic Towel Day. There will not be a drinks special password that night, only the showing of the towel."
• In the Adelaide area, geocacher Rich from The Calumphing_Four organized a Déjà vu Towel Day Pub Lunch between 12:30 and 13:30. "Come and enjoy a drink and a feed at the Mawson Lakes Hotel, in the Sports Bar (not the Dining Bistro) - entry via University Pde (South Side). Follow the link to the Sports Bar and you can check out the menu in advance. The Beef Burger is yummy! Please let me know if you are coming with a log so I can confirm the booking on the day prior. Table is booked under Richard."
• Figgles made what is probably the world's first Towel Day Xtranormal video! The Wikipedia reference made us grin.
• Peter Anderson, an Australian writer, blogged about Towel Day, Douglas Adams and the influence he's had on his life.
• In Sydney, the Kinokuniya bookstore offered any customer who wore a towel 20% discount on their full-priced book purchases.
• Eureco, an Australian outfit selling European collections of both bamboo and organic cotton bath towels, offered 15% off. They blogged about it and posted some pictures.

• In Bregenz a "flashmob 42" was planned: Philipp called all lifeforms with towels to join him and help create a large "42" between 19:52 and 20:01 on the Platz der Wiener Symphoniker, in front of the Bregenzer Festspielhaus. (where the Bond-Movie "Quantum of Solace" was filmed) Philipp is the organiser of last year's "Don't Panic" presentation at ACHNUS Film. Details and RSVP on Facebook. Here are pictures! Philipp was interviewed by Radio Antenne Vorarlberg.

• The VRT (Belgian publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders) published a nice post titled "Een gelukkige Handdoekdag!" in the Culture and media section of its newssite.

• In Sao Paulo there was the Towel Day March against the Vogon violence.
• The Clube do Livro SSA asked its members to bring a towel to the meeting of 28 May. It specified "as an accessory, don't dress in it!". Tribute was paid to Douglas Adams, with a presentation. There were nice things available. Picture of the speaker. Picture of the audience.
• The crew at Livraria Cultura CasaPark Shopping Center (Brasilia, DF) not only decided to proudly carry a towel all day long, but also invited other hitchhikers to join them for a informal meeting starting at 7:42pm (Brazilian official time) at Livraria Cultura CasaPark Shopping Center (SGCV Sul, lote 22). The meeting was intended to promote the interaction among Douglas Adams fans. Special: 1 - The first 10 hitchhickers to arrive carrying a towel get a free "Dont Panic" bottom! 2 - All hitchhikers that attend the meeting carrying a towel will participate in the raffle of a kit containing the five books of the "Hitchhikers Guide trilogy".
• A group of froods gathered in Anápolis, Goiás. They took a group picture and sent in this video in which they run around in the Brasil Park Shopping mall, wearing their towels as capes. :-)
• Keiko Noriko wrote "Towel Day", a Gilmore Girls and Big Bang Theory Crossover fanfic. It's rated K - suitable for most ages. It's received several positive reviews and has made at least one person want to discover the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
• Blog Livros ran a contest for Dia da Toalha. The winner was awarded a set of the five original books of the trilogy of the Guia do Mochileiro das Galéxias!
• Grandes Filmes also launched a competition. The winner was given the choice between the five book trilogy, the DVD or a Don't Panic T-shirt.

• A new Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game was announced in a joint press release of Megadodo Publications and Canadian game developer Hothead Games. Metro published an article about it. A dedicated site has been created but doesn't seem to contain any information at this point: www.thenewhitchhikersguide.com".
• The Toronto froods organised a contest to select a Towel Day Ambassador. 742 netizens participated in the contest to decide who would represent Earth this year. Democracy ruled and the people have spoken. Deena Roth of Tennessee, USA will be our Intergalactic Towel Day Ambassador! (applause!) Finalists Jennifer Allaby and Frank Eckstrom will be great Regional Ambassadors. Here are the pictures Deena submitted on Facebook. She defended her candidacy as follows: "As a brand ambassador/booth bunny for my local sci-fi convention, I travel regionally throughout the year to spread the word about geekdom; I feel this qualifies as prior experience. Also, I will make spreading the word about Towel Day a sincere priority in my life - up to and including using the title of "Official Towel Day Ambassador" (or whatever it ends up being) on my resume during my next job hunt. I have a deep appreciation for Douglas Adams and his works, and I would be grateful to play a part in keeping them alive." Earth is forever indebted to the Toronto froods, without whom our planet would have continued to lack decent intergalactic representation. We heartily congratulate Ambassador Deena and thank hoopy finalists Jennifer and Frank!
• In Toronto you could meet froods at Jack Astor's Bar & Grill, 133 John Street, at 17:30. Organizers Paul Smith, Tom Wong and Mark Roberts planned, like in 2010, a Photo Scavenger Hunt.
• Also in Toronto at 7pm there was a Towel Day Runway Fashion Show at the Chapters Indigo book store @ John St. and Richmond St. People with towels were eligible for prizes.
• And finally, also in Toronto, a last minute contest was held: first person to bring a towel to the Coles bookstore at Eglinton Square and make themselves known at the cash desk (between 1pm-9pm) won a prize.
• Canadian geocachers celebrated in Richmond Hill, starting at 18:00. Venue is the Wild Wing. At least 18 were present, wings wear eaten and fun was had.
• In Calgary, a geek movie night with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy headlining was held at the Endeavor Arts & Event Space.
• The Edmonton Science Fiction Appreciation Society met on Towel Day at 19:00 at Elephant & Castle. They wrote: "In honor of Douglas Adams, May 25th is Intergalactic Towel Day! Come join us at Elephant and Castle for dinner and general nerdiness. Be sure to bring your towel! Who's hosting? Matt. How to find us: I'll have a white "Don't Panic" towel around my neck."
• Victoria Paterson, journalist, reflected on Douglas Adams' work 10 years after he passed away.
• Ukulele-talent Ukulelezo sang and played a cover of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
• YouTube user fluffymcdeath discussed the importance of knowing where one's towel is. In the video's description he added "Dougie boy, we love you. It's true that you haven't written anything decent since you died but I'm grateful for all you wrote before you popped your clogs."
• Rusty Cherkas attracted early attention to the fact that 2012 will be special: Towel Day 2012 will be on 25/05/12. Change those 'divisive' separators to 'additive', and one discovers 25 + 05 + 12 = .... 42! He adds "Douglas may be turning in his grave over this 'insight'..."

• At a university in Hongkong, the Hitchhiker's Guide movie was shown and beer was consumed.

• In Prague a meeting was planned at 17:00 at the Letna garden. Vogon poetry started to be recited from 18:00. More
• The Brno meeting took place as usual at the garden restaurant Plzensky Dvur, table no. 42, and started at 17:00. More
• Also in Brno, Maid cafe offered a special Maido cocktail to every visitor with a towel.
• There was a big get-together in Pardubice. Photo

• "Towel Day i Vejle", the hoopy concert in honour of Douglas Adams, was back for a 2011 edition. Played: Michael Hamilton, Camell Duo, Cammilla Skjærbæk and there was a surprise visit from Tomas & Morten from Converting to Good!

• Froods met in Tampere, in restaurant Plevna from 19:00-22:00. Everyone had to be in posession of a towel.
• In Helsinki anyone with a towel could join a group that was going to have beers at the London Pub (Fredrikinkatu 46, Helsinki) from 19:00-21:00.
• Afterdawn.com, who publishes tech information in several languages, gave away a bunch of towels.

• In Paris, le Jour de la Serviette was celebrated at the Arènes de Lutèce, once a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre that could seat 15,000 and was used to present gladiatorial combats. At 19:30 a towel combat was going to be held, after which the public could participate in an abridged re-enactment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - unless we misunderstood that bit, which is entirely possible. Afterwards it was off to the local pub to drink peanuts or eat beer, or vice versa. UPDATE: here's the full program: 1) towel fight; 2) towel throwing; 3) Towel race; 4) Towel shooting (?!); Intermezzo: beautiful towel "défilé" (could mean fashion show or parade); "the towel" - a play of the famous latin poet Plautus (254-184 BC); award ceremony. Here's a picture provided by Edouard, the frood who hitchhiked for 42 days and ended that day in Paris! More pictures.
• In Lyon, the Lugdunum froods met at 16:00 at Ninkasi Gerland 267 Rue Marcel Mérieux - 69007 Lyon Métro B / Arrêt Stade de Gerland.
• Edouard, a big h2g2-fan, was going to hitchhike for 42 days around France until Towel Day. He made it!
• TheRealMisterFox made a funny video on how he wrote a letter to explain to his brothers' teachers why he would be carrying a towel to school. Afterwards he reported on some of their funny reactions.

• In Backnang, Towel Day will celebrated again in 'daswohnzimmer', a well-known bar and lounge! Two hoopy froods booked this bar to celebrate Towel Day and everyone with a towel received free peanuts. It started at 19:42 and 42 seconds. There were "Pangalaktischer Donnergurgler"!
• Aachen, near the Dutch and Belgian border, was another place where hitchhikers could head. At 19:42 there was a gathering at the fountain on the market place (N 50° 46.581 E 006° 05.020) near the Dom. Around 120 Douglas Adams fans met and formed a huge "42". Celebrations continued with gin & tonic and "Pangalaktischem Donnergurgler" in Café-Galilei (N 50° 46.789 E 006° 4.715) in the Milchtraße (Milkyway). Details on Geocaching.com. Here's an impressive picture.
• Freitagsfisch and Bahía de Chochinos presented the 10th Intergalactic Towel Day in Castrop-Rauxel near Dortmund, Germany. Hitchhikers met with their towels at 18:42 at 'Einkaufszentrum Widumer Tor'. Carrying their towels proudly, they traveled by foot through the town center straight to Bahía de Cochinos. There they partied on with good music and lots of Pangalactic Gargle Blasters. Everybody who brought his own towel got some free peanuts. More information on Freitagsfisch.de or Facebook.
• In the Hamburg Planetarium (Hindenburgstr. 1 b) there was a reading of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by the actors Anne Schieber and Ole Schlosshauer of the Altona Theater on May 25th 2011 at 20:00. The entrance fee was reduced from 11 Euro to 5,50 Euro for all visitors with towels. This proved, once again, that the practical value of a towel should never be underestimated!
• In Berlin, the Hummel Store was organizing a Towel Day flashmob at 19:00. From their flyer: "Everyone who is part of the flashmob gets a 15% discount, a Punchi towel scarf at a special rate and surprise gifts. Be part of the party crowd and have your picture taken by the lifestyle photographer Oliver Rath."
• Also in Berlin, and also at 19:00, at the Alexanderplatz another flashmob was planned. There's a short video documenting it here.
• And also in Berlin, customers who visited fraurieke.de's store carrying a towel AND correctly answered a very important question, got 20% off.
• The Berliner who missed Towel Day or who couldn't get enough of it could attend the annual Towelday celebration at the Space Station on saturday 28 May at 20:00. Rungestr. 20, 2HH, Mitte, Berlin, Germany, ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. Here's a video from the drink mixing contest.
• In Frankfurt am Main, at 18:00 there was a guided tour honouring Douglas Adams at the Senckenberg natural history museum. The theme was "Mach´s gut und Danke für den Kakapo - Die Douglas-Adams-Gedenkführung" (based on Last Chance to See) and the guide was biologist Daniela Szymanski.
• Several German Bookcrossing.com users released Douglas Adams books into the wild!
• Punchi made a Towel Day edition of their towel scarfs.
• getDigital, supplier of geek stuff, ran like last year a "Special Towel-Day Offer": two shirts and a towel relate to the answer to the ultimate question, at a reduced price.
• Newgadgets.de organized a contest (ending on 08.06.2011 at 17:00) with which you could win a towel with an UMTS stick.

• In Budapest, an event (get-together?) happened in the Fogasház (Fogasház Akácfa 51, Budapest), from 17:30-2:00
• Also in Budapest, a large group of hardcore hitchhikers met at Budapest Szabadság Tér at 19:00. As always they had a Towel beauty contest, Vogon poetry spouting contest, and much more... Some were dressed as characters from the movie (big-headed depressed Marvin, Zaphod with his weird helmet, Arthur in dressing gown...), check out the pictures. You can find videos on the Facebook event page.
• The Minerva Library (Hungary /Pécs) joined Towel Day - they had a nice meeting at 16:30 (CET=UTC+1) with Douglas Adams fans - of course with their towels :)

• A small group of Douglas Adams fans celebrated Towel day in Bali! (check out the pictures) They met at a little Warung at the end of Sanur (the Universe to ex-pats) at 5.30 pm on 25th May. It was newly opened and called Warung Tanjung. As it is way past the southern end of Sanur, just before the mangrove swamps, the regulars have taken to calling it the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (RATEOTU, but locally known as RATTY's) Towels were part of the dress code. If also attired in a dressing gown, one could cool down with a complimentary drink on arrival.

• Dublin's Towel Day meetup started at 19:00 at the Bia Bar. Everyone was welcome and there were Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters!
• The A*Star Hostel Group in Dublin (Abraham House, Ashfield House and Abigail's Hostel) waived, like last year, the usual towel rental charge in honour of Towel Day. They put up these posters to inform the guests. They plan to make this small gesture every year on Towel Day!

• The Society for Science Fiction & Fantasy devoted its Reading Club's May meeting to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Tel Aviv Book club was held on Wednesday 25 May. Participants were asked to bring a copy of the book and a towel.
• Animator Oren Mashkovski and illustrator Eran Mendel created a short animated promo video for Towel Day. It is featured at the bottom of this page.

• In Pomezia, Cultural Association La Mano celebrated Towel Day 2011 at Bottega Art, Via Luigi Settembrini 11. From 19:00, until the end of the world!
• In Perugia, a Towel Day party was also planned.
• Giorgia Yuki Baglieri made a funny poster to promote Towel Day.
• Libreria Coop Minganti, a bookshop in Bologna (via Ferrarese 83/ a-b), alternated the usual music from the speakers with readings from Adams' books all day long. Every customer who came with his towel was entitled to a discount on Douglas Adams Books. Staff used "So long and thanks for all the fish" to salute the clients when they're goin. And they changed, for the day, their nametags, becoming characters from the Hitchhikers's guide to the Galaxy.

• Douglas Adams' die hard fans met at Giggles Club in Nairobi. "There will be Magrathea Whale Cake, Galactic Gargleblasters will flow freely, Reg Nullify and the Cataclysmic Combo will be on hand to walk you to the edge and Disaster Area will, as usual, be performing their new hit song "Boy being meets Girl being". There will also be a poetry session. Vogon Poetry will be recited, we have invited the Agoths of Kria led by the Poet Master Grunthos the Flatulent as well as Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex. They have neither confirmed attendance nor turned down the invitation. Entry conditional on presentation of a towel."

• ScannerJOE made a cool paper replica of the Guide that you can duplicate with his instructions.

• Jaap Meijers, journalist and allround creative mind, hitchhiked to London to celebrate Towel Day there. He had some passport issues, but he made it!
• Heinze Havinga tried to convince the parents of a newborn to give it a Towel Day related name, but failed.

• Trillian Amélie [last name omitted] celebrated her first birthday, she was born on Towel Day 2010.

• Cracow (Kraków) froods had a Towel Day flash mob. Rough Google Translate translation from their Facebook page - if you understand Polish, it was probably safer to read the instructions in Polish - "Stand near the monument of Adam Mickiewicz / fountain / Empiku, when the hour of 12:00, Put on it around his neck. You can move freely across the Market Square. The action will last approximately 15 minutes, but after you wear a towel all day. ;-)"

• In Oporto, bloggers from "Bela Lugosi is Dead" asked their readers to submit photos of their own celebrations, and on May 28th (yes, you read that correctly) planned to gather for the very first time for a Towel Day Celebration! (from 15:00 until 18:00 in "Cafè Piolho", a centenary café.

• Saint Petersburg saw its first ever Towel Day celebration.
• And in Moscow a meet-up took place on Arbat! Here's a picture from Moscow, possibly from that group.
• In Arkhangelsk there definitely was a group having some kind of celebration, as seen in this video.
• Somewhere in Russia a three day long Towel Day Festival was being organized from 27 until 29 May. It was a "private underground trance fest" with an impressive number of artists and DJs. We like the artwork. There will be tea. This festival was probably only for people who are already part of that scene. "Face control" was planned. This video is probably from that festival.

• Froods from Slovakia met in a garden of Mudronova 44, Bratislava, Earth, at 19:30. (home of conterporary writer Koloman Kocur). Highlights:
  • Trying to hitch a hike while convolving from cacophony of vogon poetry on a roof
  • Competition "the most original towel"
  • Workshop about growing petunias
  • Learning how to fly (using a pair of attractive legs to distract)
  And of course, no pan-galactic gargleblaster or tea could be missing!
  
• Martinus, the biggest online book retailer in Slovakia, dedicated the whole week to the memory of Douglas Adams (all his books are -15% and the one by Eoin Colfer, too). Also, there was a competition, in which everybody could win DON'T PANIC towels (picture).

• Barcelona suffered through a "Vogon poetry show" as a part of the combined geek pride day / Towel Day celebrations. People were reminded to bring your towel: it can be used to protect your ears and sanity!

• Swedish fantasy writer Erik Granström posted pictures of how he made creative use of his towel during the annual visit to his chartered accountant. Watch and learn!
• In Stockholm, for the fifth year running, Towel Day celebrators met in the park Tantolunden. (some were human, some were pets)
• In Lund, a Towel Day happening was planned at "Sankt Hans Backar" aka "Monte composto" at 19:00. Everyone with a towel was welcome!
• There was a Towel Day celebration in Härnösand on Bittens, a local pub.
• The SF Bookshop (Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö) not only sold its famous Don't Panic towels again. They also offered, to anyone who entered any of their three stores with a towel in hand, a 10% discount on everything except DVD's. No blankets, wipes, washcloths, handkerchiefs, bed sheets or other poor substitutes - serious interstellar hitchhikers have TOWELS!

• The Swiss celebrated Towel Day in Zurich, for the second time. They met at the Polyterrasse of the ETH Zurich. Throughout May and parts of June there'll always be people hanging around and having some drinks at the Polyterrasse, as there's the summer bar, with different groups of the ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich operating a bar, selling drinks and snacks. However, you're of course free to bring your own stuff. The most important thing is: Bring your towel! They plan to launch towelday.ch but in the meantime you can find them on Facebook.
• Not on Towel Day but on Friday, The Fish Inn in Zwingen held a Towel Day party. It started at 19:30 and the Killadillas played live music.
• Gbanga is a free mobile GPS game. The week of Towel Day it featured special Towel Day items for players to collect. Players completing the Police Car side-quest received one of three Towel Day items as a reward. At the time of writing, Gbanga was available for iPhone/iPad and Java/J2ME mobile phones. The games can be influenced by real-world factors such as place, time, local weather and nearby players.

• No events in Turkey that we are aware of, but even cats celebrated Towel Day there and there was a Facebook page.

• There are hitchhikers in Kiev and they know where their towels are! They observed Towel Day and celebrated online on vk.com

• Planet Rock aired an "Alternative Thought Of The Day" about Towel Day around 7:40am GMT. They had very knowledgeable British frood David Haddock (of ZZ9 fame) create it. You can listen to a recording of the broadcast [5.13 MB mp3] here. Planet Rock is, as its name implies, totally devoted to rock. An excellent place to pay tribute to Douglas Adams, who dreamed of being a rock star!
• Siren FM (community radio in the Lincoln area) broadcasted "Dean Wilkinson & the Importance of International Towel Day", in which hosts Joy Knight and Alex Lewczuk's talked with comedy scriptwriter and novelist Dean Wilkinson, about Towel Day. A recording is available as a podcast.
• Douglas' daughter sent out several tweets about Towel Day! (we appreciate but we're not linking to her because we suppose she's probably getting hassled enough already)
• Stephen Fry, great friend of Douglas Adams, reminded his followers about Towel Day.
• In London, Whippersnapper Press hosted a Vogon Poetry Slam (Facebook event page). There were two categories: Nerdcore and So-Bad-It’s-Good! Also: Pangalactic gargleblasters, the most bureaucratic voting system they can devise, judges writhing in agony and some damn snazzy costumes. All this and more, starting at 19:00 at The Miller Pub, London Bridge, 96 Snowsfields Road, London SE1 3SS. Whippersnapper Press is a site dedicated to fresh new creative writing from "bright young things".
• Hitchhiker’s week in Worcester staged daily lunchtime readings of "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" at Waterstones, and "Vogonesque: 42 Open Mic Night Special" on Towel day itself, with enormously talented writers and Musicians paying tribute to Doug at Boston Tea Party. "The 'Jaggeroth' online Science Fiction Exhibition" was launched on 23rd of May in Douglas’ memory, and invited submissions from Artists. The week culminated in Peter Gill (Author of "Douglas Adams Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the universe and Everything") giving a talk on Doug’s writing of the radio series of "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy", and why he chose the number 42 as his ultimate answer. This was held at Worcester Arts Workshop, 2-3.30pm on Saturday 28th May. More info.
• Cambridge ZZ9 members ran a tour of the city on the evening of Towel Day, starting at the railway station and ending at a pub. You could see where Douglas Adams was born, where he went to University, where the biscuit incident took place, where the TARDIS landed in Shada, and more. Then have a drink and find out about Douglas's connection with the Baron of Beef pub. Map of the tour. Start: 18:30 at Cambridge Railway Station.
• Science writer and Science Editor of the Daily Mail, Michael Hanlon, talked about the science of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After the talk you could sit back and relax for an exclusive viewing of the feature film. The venue was The Chemistry Centre, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BA. Thank you, Royal Society of Chemistry! Details here.
• Ken Nicholas organised once again a Towel Day picnic in Horsham Park (West Sussex) for the Horsham Actuaries and friends. It started at 12:30. They brought towels, mainly to sit on, although Ken said he might see what a corner of his tastes like.
• Four days before Towel Day, on Saturday 21 May, you could already get in the mood with a Douglas Adams Tour of Islington! The guide was David Haddock from ZZ9. You could see the inspiration for Fenchurch's door, the real Hotblack Desiato, Dirk Gently's canal and more as you wandered round Islington and marveled how easy it is to get a pizza, and get it delivered, nowadays. Details and RSVP on Facebook.
• In Edinburgh the Scottish Researchers Group met on May 28 for their annual Towel Day meet. It was great.
• Maynard Comau tweeted a link to his recently unearthed 20 year old interview with Douglas Adams. Hear an upbeat dna give an interview while he's trying to wake up.
• Sick Kids Save Point and Powwownow held a competition. Prizes: a 42 towel and a Portal 2 T-shirt.
• The Guardian published again a brilliant article by Alison Flood. Earlier in May she already mentioned Towel Day in her article "Celebrating writers in public (even Pynchon)".
• Also at the Guardian, Chally Kacelnik wrote "Towel Day: a hoopy frood pays homage", a fine introduction to the man, his work and the Towel Day tradition.
• The Independent mentioned Towel Day in an article about trending Twitter topics.
• Marc Draco wanted to release a free Web CMS framework called "Webrathea" (from Web-Magrathea). He didn't make the deadline, but that's consistent with Douglas' spirit ("I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by") The CMS framework's parts will be named after h2g2 characters and it will be dedicated to the memory of Douglas Adams. Our favorite part is the copyright notice, that contains this unusual request: "Developers utilising this software are strongly encouraged, to wear a towel with pride on 25th, May annually to remember Douglas Adams and his work. This is not mandatory, but think of it as, in some small way, helping Douglas put smiles on more people's faces wherever he is."
• Personalembroidery.co.uk sold personalized towels and has announced a 20% discount on towels ordered on Towel Day 2011.
• Jane Hamerton Ltd - Personalised Towels - gave away a free flannel with every order placed on-line on Towel Day.
• At AudioGO, formerly known as BBC Audiobooks, their complete range of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy CD and Download titles were for one day only available at 42% off - direct from their website.

• Neil Gaiman tweeted: In celebration of Douglas Adams and #towelday, a song I named a short story after: http://youtu.be/Xq_cmaFSD4k
• American academic and activist Larry Lessig rocked a towel on Towel Day at the eG8-Summit in France! He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
• Craig Ferguson, tv host, actor and writer, tweeted "Happy Towel Day to all the hoopy froods. towelday.org . #towelday"
• Paradice Games presented T2D2 - The Towel Day Towel Drive (March 11th-May 11th + May 25th).
  • "Gently used and clean towels will substitute the purchase of bonus games for the entire Paradice IRC Golf League. (What is IRC Golf?)
  • Towels donated will be given to no-kill animal shelters, one in or near Everett, WA and another in or near Portland, OR.
  • The event begins March 11th, 2011; the anniversary of Douglas Adams' birth.
  • The towel-gathering ends May 11th, 2011; the anniversary of Douglas Adams' death.
  • The final delivery of towels, by those who Know Where Their Towel Is, in bathrobes and pajamas, will take place on Towel Day; May 25th, 2011.
  • Address to ship towels to (from March 11th - May 11th): Paradice Inc, 14845 SW Murray Scholls Dr, Ste #110-252, Beaverton, OR 97007, USA."
• Hawaii: Scott K. wrote "honor the memory of Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, by joining me for Pan-Dimensional Gargle Blasters at Sunset!" You could join him on Waikiki Beach at 18:00.
• Smyrna Public Library in Smyrna, Tennessee, hosted a Towel Day celebration. The primary event planned was a Vogon (Bad) Poetry Contest, and displays on Adams's work were up all day. Staff was on hand with their towels in the most mostly harmless place in town.
• In Houston, Texas, at 11:15 geocachers had lunch together at the Flying Saucer (705 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002).
• Also in the Houston area, around 16:00 Abby and at least 21 other froods met at Hermann Park, bringing a towel (maybe they'll steal the idea of another group and donate it to a local animal shelter afterward), bringing some sort of food products, and listening to Pink Floyd.
• There was a pub crawl in the works for Portland Oregon, or so we heard.
• New York had its own Towel Day Meetup.
• More in New York: Fish Bar, a neighborhood dive bar in the East Village of New York City, celebrated Towel Day by screening the Jennings-directed film "the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" at 8:30. There were special drink deals during the film as well as discounts for those patrons who bring their towels!
• Someone in San Fernando Valley posted a craigslist ad looking for people to celebrate Towel Day with. We like his/her sense of humour: "The beach, while appealing, fails because there might be false positives".
• At OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), certain Wednesdays have a special "over 21 only" event called OMSI After Dark where you can go and experience all of the awesomeness of science without all of the screamingness of children. Also, beer and wine are available. In 2011, such an event coincided with Towel Day, and the theme was "The Art and Science of Creativity," making it a perfect event in which to honor Douglas Adams. A cool cat was planning to attend this event with his towel and hoped other hoopy froods would show up ready to enjoy science, beer, Vogon poetry, and hopefully not that last one? The admission was free to OMSI members; $10 to non-members. Admission included a drink ticket. "The OMSI cafe will be open with a special dinner menu and cash bars will be available for those who want more than just a taste!" OMSI, 1945 Southeast Water Avenue, Portland, OR 97214, 6PM - 10PM, (21+ only, ID Required).
• Mike's Museum, LLC at 1 Lafayette St, Salem, MA 01970 accepted towels all day for the pet rescue center.
• Lindsey L. from Denver, CO, celebrated her birthday and wore a towel to work, going to the local bar (Their Bar on Colfax) with a mass amount of (little) towels (on which she's written Don’t Panic) to hand out to the patrons, and finally drinking Earth-bound versions of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters.
• Troy from Wakefield Houston, TX wrote "we are having our second annual towel day at 'Petrol Station' 985 wakefield Houston, TX. Come join us for happy hour all night long if you bring your towel!!!"
• At Zappos.com, a bunch of Zapponians at the home office in Las Vegas NV celebrated (cool picture) by screening the movie and collecting towels for Shade Tree, a local women’s shelter. UPDATE: Oddly enough, exactly 42 towels were collected!
• A free Android app to enhance your Towel Day pictures has been developed by Joseph Jaquinta. It's called uTowelDay and (we haven't tested it) pimps pictures with Douglas Adams quotes, etc.
• Until Saturday Night (May 28th) you could enter the Towel Day contest on Weirdreview.com.
• Wake Robin Morris, a women's morris dancing group from the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, danced a dance using English tea towels instead of hankies in honour of my favourite book, The Long dark Tea Time of the Soul.
• Lonely Planet team member Mark Broadhead blogged about Towel Day and the relative merits of a towel and a sarong.
• Fark had an entry about Towel Day. Thanks to whoever made it happen. Some great comments there: TheCharmerUnderMe wrote: "Mine was made in Belgium." Lord Dimwit replied: "Welcome to ban-land, my friend. No need for that sort of language."
• Slashdot published a Towel Day story. Yay, samzenpus is a hoopy frood!
• Paste Magazine showed Towel Day ran a short but sweet article on Towel Day by Carey Hodges.
• At DayOldStubble - "news and reviews for the refined geek" - Jason Carrick posted about the best ways to celebrate Towel Day. An excerpt: "Hang up banners that say 'Don’t Panic' so everyone remains calm."
• Blogger PZ Myers, well known biologist and militant atheist, had his towel at hand and celebrated Towel Day.
• Comedian Michael Brown tweeted that he'd be onstage at The Comedy Zone - Augusta, GA at 8pm ... WITH his towel!
• Science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson celebrated Towel Day and posed with his "Don't panic" towel!
• S.O. Crates reported "I was listening to Stephanie Miller, a host of a liberal talk radio show that is syndicated on many radio stations in the US, this morning. A caller today called in to remind people that it was towel day in honor of Douglas Adams and Steph's regular Wednesday guest, Hal Sparks, went into a lengthy description of what towel day is, who Douglas Adams was, and proceeded to drop about fifty references to the books (proving his geekdom) in about 30 seconds. I was impressed. Let it be known that Hal Sparks is not only a great actor, a metal loving nerd at heart, but also a downright uber-frood amongst froods."
• Kreg Steppe wrote and produced a short story regarding Marvin titled: "Marvin's Personal Journey of Self Discovery in 5 Seconds". It is an Audio Podcast and is also available as a PDF.
• In Indiana, Frank Eckstrom (finalist in the Towel Day Ambassador contest) got an impressive Don't Panic tattoo for Towel Day 2011.
• Frank also launched a Towel-A-Thon to collect clean new and gently used towels for the Independent Cat Society, a no-kill cat rescue and 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit Organization. Cats are cool, towels are cool, we can only imagine the coolness of a cat with a towel! (warning: do NOT try to keep a side of meat in them for month) The Towel-A-Thon went well and Frank has ideas to inprove a future edition.
• Finally, the same Frank (does he come in sixpacks?) created - not on Towel Day but shortly thereafter and as a direct consequence of it - the Facebook group "Galactic Hitchhikers", where field researchers and contributors to the Guide can post their reports.
• Kiera Faye got herself a Don't Panic tattoo, with a "42" in UV ink so it's visible under blacklight.
• George P. has chosen his wife really well: not only is she a huge Douglas Adams fan, but her birthday is... Towel Day! This year her birthday present was a special Towel Day towel, emblazoned with the answer to life, the universe and everything! Happy birthday!
• Crimsong19 made a video on tasting a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
• BlanketOfLinus wrote and performed a song about Douglas Adams.
• Jonsape created a funny video about real time Babel Fish translation.
• Spraypaint, from California, created Towel Day banners and wallpapers, for your pleasure. He is the creator of one of the Facebook Towel Day pages.
• HerArtSheLoves built a tribute robot for Towel Day. She builds and sells robot scuptures at RobotsAreAwesome.
• Paul Pelkonen, an operablogger in New York, wrote the synopsis for a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opera in three acts.
• DAPS, the unofficial Disney fan club encouraged fans of the world's most famous mouse to participate in Towel Day and send in pictures with their towel on May 25th.
• CakeWrecks celebrated Towel Day with a post full of horribly gone wrong Hitchhiker's Guide related cakes.
• Miranda Nelson wrote on Straight.com a pretty funny post about "ridiculous holidays you ought to be celebrating", prominently featuring Towel Day.
• Douglas Adams fans who are also Terry Pratchett fans, could like last year support Alzheimer's research and get a towel with a lilac on one end and "Don't Panic" on the other end from thelazydaisy's shop.
• PeopleTowels ran a photo contest. "PeopleTowels" are reusable personal hand towels, an alternative for disposable paper towels that contribute to deforestation, water pollution and global warming. View the winning entries!
• On Towel Day, Code 42 Software offered a 15% discount on any one year subscription to their CrashPlan backup service.
• ZeeGee Games in Orlando Florida did a towel drive in addition to supporting Towel Day. All collected towels went to Pet Rescue by Judy, who expressed their gratitude on Twitter.
• Vinesh, a student at Lincoln Prairie School, created and mailed Google this hoopy Towel Day doodle. Vogon poetry was read at his school and some students are said to have "Don't Panic" stickers on their lockers.
• Anastasia Burns from San Jose, CA, wrote an essay about her dad's towel obsession and got an "A" for it. Her dad definitely knows how important towels are, though he may be overdoing the towel thing a bit. Here it is, enjoy!
• In what is becoming a yearly tradition, Travis Avery made a series of gorgeous wallpapers for your computing devices. The iPad is now also catered for, making it look even more like a real life manifestation of the Hitchhiker's Guide!
• Jonathan Mahood, author of the cartoon Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog, drew his main character with a towel for Towel Day.
• 1977 the comic featured a special towel day drawing of Lorraine as Trillian.
• Morgan Lawless texted a message about Towel Day that was displayed at Yankee Stadium!
• Vinesh Kannan wrote some Vogon Poetry and quipped "hopefully people will hate the underlying metaphors as much as I did".
• Doug Gunderson wrote this poem on Towel Day 2011:

  Meet Under Adams
  
  A rather tall and gangly man
  Whose wit we heartily enjoyed
  Gave us all a chance to smile
  With the many words he toyed.
  A trilogy that’s five books long
  When he said he’d stop at four.
  A man who met the Kakapo
  And taught us even more.
  Climbing Kilimanjaro,
  Or explaining the internet
  Douglas was just one step ahead
  Of where we were going to get.
  He lead us in a gentle way
  In his world and in ours,
  His wit and wisdom writing tales
  That this avid reader devours.
  Brighter than he claimed to be
  But never pompous or rude
  He showed us how a genius thinks
  With a humorous aptitude.
  I rarely go a day or two
  Without quoting one of his lines,
  Tall, but his works are taller still...
  Like the giant redwood pines.
  So let us celebrate this man
  Good gentle sirs and madams
  I hope you will take the time
  And meet me under Adams.
  
  (normally we link to creative work, instead of publishing it in full; this is an exception - we so wish we could meet you all under Adams)

*UNDETERMINED COUNTRIES / ONLINE GAMES / ETC*

• Wikipedia was vandalized: the entire description of Earth was replaced by "Mostly harmless".
• Twitter went nuts over #towelday, for the second year running.
• In Second Life, Towel Day was celebrated in a rendition of Milliways, built by Ora Varthader (Matt Eckstrom) and DarthVenger Blackheart (Frank Eckstrom, finalist in the Towel Day Ambassador contest). A CNN ireporter covered the story. Though the celebration is over, Milliways can still be visited here until the end of the world, though the celebration was only on May 25th. Milliways in Secondlife was a smash hit and huge success. The party lasted nearly ten hours, the sim (aka unit of land in secondlife) was at capacity for most of the day, as soon as one would leave another would enter. It had dozens of visitors all day from almost every country you could imagine. The event was headlined by SecondLife sensation singer Suzan Littlething, who performed live with her original music and cover songs such as Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," fittingly, and the Beatles "Across the Universe." With her came her friend and DJ Gilliam Saeed. DJ Gilliam rocked the house with a great mix of rat pack tunes, and was well prepared with sound clips and tracks from the H2G2 TV series. He really set the tone of the day well. The crowd went nuts when he played "Journey of the Sorcerer." Later DJ Maxx and DJ Madog dropped by, both great guys that helped keep the party rolling for a lot longer than expected. The organizers were well satisfied with the turnout and the reception, and look forward to topping it next year! They had boards out in world with a URL link to TowelDay.org, that played a clip from "Journey of the Sorcerer" when it was touched in the lobby, it was heard going all day. Some pictures of the build: [1] [2] [3] And some of the event.
• Also in Second Life, members of inworld group Le Chat Gris and Subscribomatic group Grimalkin Gang received towels to wear.
• The h2g2 Community Consortium called its Facebook contacts to participate in Towel Day on h2g2. H2g2 was a site founded by Douglas Adams and Robbie Stamp in 1999, as an early experiment in online communities and collaborative writing. It was supposed to be a real version of the Hitchhiker's Guide. (this was before Wikipedia) By the end of 2000, the site was struggling financially and the BBC took it over, never really knowing what to do with it. Now the BBC wants to let go of it. A group of "researchers" who contributed to h2g2 wants to save it and formed the h2g2 Community Consortium.
• Gbanga is a free mobile GPS game. The week of Towel Day it featured special Towel Day items for players to collect. Players completing the Police Car side-quest received one of three Towel Day items as a reward. At the time of writing, Gbanga was available for iPhone/iPad and Java/J2ME mobile phones. The games can be influenced by real-world factors such as place, time, local weather and nearby players.
• As in previous years, there was a Towel Day Swap over at swap-bot.com. This year, froods exchanged handmade Towel Day greeting cards.
• Redditor myotheralt posted about Towel Day 2011. Your upvotes were appreciated!