Towel Day is an annual celebration on the 25th of May, as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001).
On that day, fans around the universe carry a towel in his honour.
Tell us about events you organize on Towel Day, and we will announce them here!
On Towel Day, carry a towel. Where? Everywhere.
Proudly show the world you've observed Towel Day! Post for example a photo or video with your towel on the Towel Day Facebook page and enjoy other people's. Some alternatives are the Flickr group for pictures and of course YouTube for videos.
The 2024 Towel Day Ambassador
The annual Towel Day Ambassador Contest has ended. Ken Kopacki has been democratically elected Towel Day Ambassador for 2024.
One thing that made Ken an outstanding candidate are his existing efforts to spread copies of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's no exaggeration to say that he already was a true ambassador!
His main responsibility will be representing Earth on May 25th at the Intergalactic Pandimensional Towel Day Gala. To support the enormous responsibility for the legacy of Douglas Adams, regional TDA assignments are as follows; Dan Ekberg - North and South America, Rio LaCour - Europe and Asia, Carol - Australia and Antartica, Ed Hunter - the UK and Africa.
Our sincere congratulations to the new Ambassasor, and thanks to the contest organisers!
What is happening on Towel Day 2024?
This list is incomplete. Know about any Towel Day events we should add? Please mail us!
ONLINE EVENTS
Kevin Jon Davies and Unbound books announced a new book drawn from Douglas Adams's archive that explores the much-loved Hitchhikers TV series. They are crowdfunding the book here.
Project Bibliotherapy - an Indian organisation that encourages reading - presents May 25 - Towel Day Live from the Biblio-cave: Guided Reading Meditations, DNA Trivia, banter with fellow Froods across timezones - Live on their Instagram @project.bibliotherapy. They've already started Towel Day week with an impromptu Instagram live broadcast by Towel Day Ambassador and Douglas Adams connoisseur Yvette Keller. Stay tuned for more!
Space.com published Towel Day 2024: What's the deal with towels in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Jeff Spry. It starts with Today is Towel Day, that officially recognized revelry of rags that breaks out each year on May 25 amid the quirky fandom of author Douglas Adams and his satirical 1979 sci-fi masterpiece, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." If you don't understand all this fuss about towels, don't panic! We've got you covered. and it remarks that Towel Day has been religiously observed every year since it was founded on May 25, 2001, just two weeks after Adams' untimely death at the age of 49..
Prof. Shelly Palmer, who has been named LinkedIn's "Top Voice in Technology", wrote an article with the title Happy Towel Day! for sasktoday.ca. She unapologetically celebrates Towel Day and briefly explains 42 and how much of Douglas Adams' wit is about the absurdity of life.
On the RPRepository.com forum, a community of 44780 gamers, writers and artists who love to role play, there's a proposal to create a thread for Towel Day art submissions and perhaps a little art museum based on H2G2.
This is a good example of something you can do if you're very active in a forum where many Douglas Adams fans may be found!
Galactic Zine Zone is requesting contributions for something they plan to release on Towel Day on multiple online platforms. If you're interested, find and message them on Twitter or Tumblr.
If you have an original art piece or something to say about the Hitchhiker's Guide, they're doing conversational interviews and surveys, some jokes and art and articles, and even fanfiction, if you're up for it.
Check it out! Updates on the project posted frequently. It's unpaid but for camaraderie and credit to your work, but a beautiful project none the less!
Kevin John Davies, director and author of books about Douglas Adams, making heavy use of material from his personal archives, was interviewed in the RHLSTP Book Club podcast episode 98.
On radio show The Witching Hour, host Nyx Fullmoon celebrates Towel Day on 4ZZZ.fm in Australia on Sunday from 10pm until midnight.
Nyx is a big Douglas Adams fan, does this every year and she will be discussing Douglas Adams' works especially H2G2 and playing tons of clips.
You can tune in to listen live or listen anytime afterwards.
Device42 celebrates Towel Day every year and this year you can win a very cool Don't Panic towel by scoring 60% or above in their online quiz on IT and the Hitchhiker's Guide! (limit 1 per person) Device42 are known for their full-stack agentless discovery and dependency mapping platform for Hybrid Cloud. It enables IT teams to run their operations more efficiently, solve problems faster, migrate and modernize with ease, and achieve compliance with flying colors. Device42 continuously discovers, maps, and optimizes infrastructure and applications across data centers and cloud, etc. These beings obviously know where their towels are.
The quiz can be found here
The game Zero Hero celebrates Towel Day: "In order to be perfectly prepared for this special day, from 22/05/2024 to 26/05/2024 the Second Hand Shop is offering a matching fluffy drying utensil and a fishy translation aid, while the Donut Shop has "Towel Boxes" filled to the brim with goodies. So grab your towel and throw yourself into battle against the fiends of all the worlds!" Source
In the forums of the Roleplay Repository, in the days leading up to Towel Day, a sci-fi roleplay is being played. This RP will be a cocktail party set in space. It is a political re-election event. The event's main sponsor is the Intergalactic Telephone Company (ITC), the largest telecom company in the universe. Your celebrity host is none other than the Intergalactic Time and Temperature lady herself, The Operator. Anytime you misdial your telephone, request directory assistance, or need to know the time and temperature of whatever planet you happen to be on, it is her recorded voice you hear.
Whether intentionally or by complete accident (perhaps being the victim of an improbability drive) you find yourself at a political rally for Zaphod Beeblebrox, intergalactic president, who is campaigning for another term in office.
Complementary Pangalactic Gargleblasters are being handled out on platters to attendees by alien and robot waiters. The event takes place on a planetoid orbiting a nearby planet. Zaphod himself has yet to arrive (and probably won't) but is supposed to attend the event.
Also readily available upon entrance to the event is a complementary babelfish in case you have difficulty in understanding any of the guests. Grab a drink, mingle with other froods and enjoy the party! You can find it here
There is a small Towel Day event in the video game Airmech strike, which is a free real time strategy game for PC.
it is a one day event on Towel Day in which players can obtain 2 Towel Day related special items. You can find the free game here
On Dock and Bay "Ultimate towels" 5 froods can win a towel if they are fast enough to like the post and tag someone.
Trovesaures, a site about the Trove MMORPG video game features a special Towel Day offer until 27 May 2024: "Celebrate this special day in Trove with our Babel’s Bank pack, available from May 24, 2024, at 11 am UTC, until May 27, 2024, at 11 am UTC – in our in-game store on all platforms."
LOCATION BASED EVENTS
AUSTRALIA
In Perth, the observatory hosts a Towel Day Night Tour! Bring your towel and come to the Perth Observatory for an unforgettable night!
Our volunteers will be ready to take you on a grand tour of the Southern Hemisphere's sky with a wide range of targets including nebulae, planets, dying stars, and enormous star clusters. As Douglas Adams wrote, a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.
Book your tickets here!
RSVP and details on Facebook
On radio show The Witching Hour, host Nyx Fullmoon celebrates Towel Day on 4ZZZ.fm in Australia on Sunday from 10pm until midnight.
Nyx is a big Douglas Adams fan, does this every year, and she will be discussing Douglas Adams' works especially H2G2 and playing tons of clips.
You can tune in to listen live or listen anytime afterwards.
AUSTRIA
In Plankenberg there is an event in "Bermuda Tanzcafe" with italian music. At 9pm.
This year Towel Day Ambassador 2015 Philipp Horatchek is not presenting an event, but he sent us a link to a reading he did in 2022, for you to enjoy.
BRAZIL
In Recife - PE, on 24, 25 and 26 May, the 12th edition of the Power-Kon Convention takes place and as usual Towel Day and Nerd Pride day will be celebrated.
The annual event created in 2013 by Brazilian producer Kelmer Luciano started as a fan meeting but has now become a large business fair mixed with entertainment, updated for the technology and pop culture market, where more and more geeks, gamers, fans of comics, music and cinema. It keeps expanding and will now for the first time be held in Bairro da Tamarineira, at the Ferreira Costa Home Center event complex. It will be divided into several categories. Pop (entertainment culture, whether in comics, cartoons, video games, technology, films, series, games, Influencers in the digital universe, otaku culture, books, etc.). Towel Day and Nerd Pride Day are celebrated on May 25th as a tribute to Douglas Adams and t commemorate the release of Star Wars. With a program of more than 30 attractions this convention also marks 27 years of the company's career, which is linked to entertainment and leisure for the whole family in Brazil. The event is free, but the production thanks those who can participate in the donation campaign by bringing 1kg of non-perishable food.
You can look forward to super attractions, such as geek stands from all over Brazil, well known special guests, themed geek environments and exhibitions for participating public, cosplay parade, nerd gourmet food court, shows, new talents, digital influencers, voice actors, Kpop contest, talkshow lectures with special guests, Japanese cuisine, dance competition, booths, video game championships, nerd Festival with attraction musical, among other things.
Date: 24.25 and 26/May 2024, from 11am to 8pm.
Location: Ferreira Costa Home Center-Unidade Tamarineira (4th Floor- R. Cônego Barata, 275 - Bairro Tamarineira, Recife - PE, 52051-020).
Information: By phone/whatsapp +5581-98704.5450 (Kelmer Luciano-Producer) or on the event's Instagram
CANADA
In Edmonton from 9pm there's the Towel Day Bass Genre Blender, with LØSTRONAUT, Seaglass, SKZM, Meeberz, Mike Panic and Miss Kitty.
Genres: bass house, cyberpunk, drum and bass, dubstep, psybass.
Details and RSVP on Facebook
Prof. Shelly Palmer, who has been named LinkedIn's "Top Voice in Technology", wrote an article with the title Happy Towel Day! for sasktoday.ca. She unapologetically celebrates Towel Day and briefly explains 42 and how much of Douglas Adams' wit is about the absurdity of life.
CZECH REPUBLIC
In Prague at 20:30 you can see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie (2005) in Kino Aero! Details
DENMARK
In Copenhagen, The Social Geek CPH once more hosts a picnic (if weather allows) in a park. They're hoping to enjoy the outdoors and the sun with some hoopy froods.
Save the Date for this special SATURDAY Towel Day.
Details and RSVP on Meetup.com and on Facebook
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FINLAND
In Espoo Towel Day will be celebrated at the Fat Lizard brewery on 24 and 25 May.
They are serving Throw in the Towel Scottish Ale, a collaboration between Fat Lizard and the ancient Turku brewery Radbrew, along with at least six pints of bitter.
The kitchen serves Topo's Perfectly Normal Beast Sandwiches.
The highlight will be the movie screening on Saturday: at 7:15 pm The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) will be shown on the big screen.
Those who travel with a towel on their shoulder will get juicy deals on both days. If you happen to forget your towel, you can buy a great travel towel on-site for your hitchhiking adventures. The event is free of charge!
Details and RSVP on Facebook
In Turku, Towel Day will again be celebrated at Cosmic Comic Cafe (Kauppiaskatu 4, Turku. The main programme consists of multidimensionally horrible poetry recitations. Unlike almost everywhere else, it's not a competition. Whatever you churn out, they read, immediately, without any filtering.
Theirs may be the oldest ongoing bad poetry night on Towel Day: they started in 2006.
This year the speciality is the AI poetry prompt competition. Can you make AI blather worse poetry than humans? The prompt for the worst AI poem will be chosen by midnight, and the prompter wins a couple of beers.
While waiting for Towel Day, they've already started publishing last year's poems from the archive on their website.
You can already send your own poems to be read at the event by mailing them to pyyhepaiva@pyyhepaiva.fi and you can join their Facebook page to stay current.
Details and RSVP on Facebook: event, page
In Helsinki, Towel Day will be celebrated at Restaurant Sunny Bay, Alvar Aallon katu 3 A, 00100 Helsinki, starting at 19:00. The main programme consists of drinking beer, consuming peanuts and trashtalking about vogons and a lot more! The waiters go crazy when customers repeatedly order Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters for a drink and after having that drink they go crazy... if Vogons poets didn't yet!
All are welcome. Don't forget your towel!
GERMANY
In Stuttgart, award winning gin distillery Euelsberger is launching a gin with hitchhiker's guide references on the bottle. In a world first, the composition was designed with AI. We don't know if it's the annoyingly cheerful or the paranoid depressive kind.
The announcement mentions something about the 42 being used for the first 1000 bottles, so we're unsure what they will look like after than. They contain 42% of alcohol.
We love the H2G2 references. Here's their website.
Source
In Berlin at 20:00 Towel Day is celebrated at C-base, a non-profit association for learning about software, hardware and networks. This tradition has been going on for over a decade now.
Music, visualizations, drinks and games related to Douglas Adams... and the reveal of ShaderAmp 1.0! Details
In Hamburg at PON - Platz ohne Namen, Towel Day celebrations will start at 18:42. Every life form is welcome to share some Pangalactic Gargle Blasters, listen to readings, get scientific enlightments, eat 42 peanuts & all the rest. They still accept submissions in the form of more Adams readings, Vogon poems, towel origami, intergalactic lectures & planetary workshops, please contact them via their webpage. Things are going to happen if you make them happen. Bring your towel, a lawn chair and don't panic!
In Hannover, once more a fireworks competition will be held in the Herrenhäuser Gärten. Some hitchhikers will gather there with a towel and a bottle of gargle blaster in the picnic basket, and will be very happy to see other guests carrying towels.
On Besser-Im-Blick.de, a magazine for the Hamburg area, we found Froods wissen, wo ihr Handtuch ist: Samstag ist Towel Day, by Niels Kreller. who poses with a towel and explains its importance, thus educating the strags. Thank you Niels!
Heise.de presents an online-quiz about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's in German and the difficulty level is hard". Check it out here
In Vasant Vihar (Delhi), Douglas Adams and his greatest masterpiece are celebrated by Project Bibliotherapy online and at Kunzum Bookstore.
The project wants to nudge folks to build a better reading habit and is run by two lifelong readers who are huge fans of DNA.
Here's the plan:
May 25 - Towel Day Live from the Biblio-cave: Guided Reading Meditations, DNA Trivia, banter with fellow Froods across timezones - Live on their Instagram @project.bibliotherapy.
May 26 - Towel Day Biblio Bash at Kunzum Bookstore, Vasant Vihar (4:30-7 PM IST):
- A Guided Reading Meditation from the pages of the Greatest Book in the Galaxy
- A mind-bogglingly simple Quiz about Life, the Universe and Everything
- A discussion circle about the works of DNA
- The launch of the Douglas Adams Corner of the Readers of 42 Library
Afterparty at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (7 PM IST onwards): The merriment continues over beer, burgers, and fries at one of their favourite places in the city - Aku's Vasant Vihar (pronounced as aaaa:koos and not ae:kus)
This week, they will also be hosting a giveaway in partnership with Pan Macmillan India, visiting bookstores, towels at hand, and engaging with fellow Froods on Insta Lives.
In Venezia the Italian Pastafarian Crew and the Italian Pastafarian Church are celebrating the pastafarian prophet Douglas Adams. They are organizing a meeting in Venice, at the Place of Worship (LdC) @A la Vecia Papussa!
Contact them you plan to participate and/or publish on the event page your best photos and perhaps that little Vogon poem you created in that particular moment!
Details and RSVP on Facebook
In Ravenna, at the Planetarium at 4:30pm there is a Galactic Guide for Mini Space Travelers Show with Amalia Persico (recommended age is 8 years old).
Reservation is recommended. Under the dome of the planetarium. A conference-show on the occasion of Towel Day. We will ask ourselves why the science fiction writer Douglas Adams of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" chose the towel as a fundamental element for those wishing to travel in our galaxy.
Using his book as inspiration and the planetarium as a map, we will discover the physical characteristics of our galaxy, the current knowledge of the objects they contain and the possibilities of future space travel.
Full admission: 5 EUR, reduced admission: 2 EUR.
Source
In Rotterdam, from 17:40-23:40, fans of Douglas Adams and/or Terry Pratchett are welcome at Cafe Pardoen, Spaansekade 62. Bring a towel, wear the lilac. In honour of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Rotterdam Editie The 9th Edition will feature: Pangalactic Gargleblasters, Vogon Poetry Contest, Dwarfish Battle Bread Battle, Elvish Impersonation Contest, Dirk Gently's Holistic Treasure Hunt and much, much more! Prizes galore!" Details and RSVP on Facebook
In Haarlem, in the Proveniershof, Gert-Jan Kooren a.k.a. "Uw verslaggever ter plaatse" (which translates to "Your reporter on the scene") will be exhibiting the results of his project "Goed dat daar een dag voor is" ("It's good that there's a day for that"), in which he gathered stories about towels. And sometimes the towels in question as well.
The installation showing the towels and their stories (plus an explanation of Towel Day, for those not froody enough to sass this important event) is part of the Vijfhoekkunstroute. Opening times: 25th and 26th of May, 12:00 - 17:00.
Details on Gert-Jan's website.
And should you also have a true-life story that has a towel in a leading role: don't hesitate to contact him on Facebook, Instagram or by mail (see website).
NEW ZEALAND
The Wairarapa Times-Age published Save the date: It's Towel Day by Nick Grant. His love for Adams is obvious and he peppered the text with brilliant Douglas Adams quotes and language that reflects the spirit of his work.
POLAND
In Rynek Mikolów, geocachers are celebrating Towel Day from 18:45 until 19:30. Bring your towel and if you want, wear a bathrobe. They will try to make the largest possible "rug" of towels on the Mikolów market square. During the event, they will sit in a circle, rest on a towel carpet and read the next chapter(s) of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" together. A souvenir picture will be taken at 19:00.
Details and RSVP on Geocaching.com
UNITED KINGDOM
Kevin Jon Davies and Unbound books announce a new book drawn from Douglas Adams's archive that explores the much-loved Hitchhikers TV series. They are crowdfunding the book here.
In London, at 14:30 (2:30pm), at Gunnersbury Park Museum, documentary director, writer and animator Kevin Jon Davies will discuss all things "Hitchhikers" with actor David Learner ("Marvin the Paranoid Android"). There will also be the opportunity to see a display of original cels from the BBC series' BAFTA winning animation sequences.
Get your tickets here!
The next day in Cambridge at 13:00 at the railway station, David Haddock awaits you for his traditional Douglas Adams themed Cambridge Tour. RSVP and details on Facebook
In Bristol, Towel Day will be celebrated on SUNDAY 26th, at Steampunk café The Clockwork Rose from 5pm. "Join us for an evening of Hitchhikers Guide themed cocktails and a nerdy quiz!" Details and RSVP on Eventbrite
In Roswell, NM, Roswell Galacticon presents Roswell Towel Day, at the Roswell Convention Center! Special Guests: Odfel as Trillian, and several Towel Day Ambassadors including the 2024 Ambassador Ken Kopacki!
Planned Events include: Vogon Poetry reading, Dinner Theatre @ The End of The Universe, Odfel workshop, more cosplay, vendors...
There's also an informal Vogon poetry event on Friday night.
The local press announced the event in detail.
Details: roswelltowelday.com
In Wayne, MI, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm you can join the Wayne Public Library as they paint and stamp towels, so you'll always know where your towel is! Source
In Pittsburgh, PA, at 5pm Melanie Todoroff hosts a Karaoke BBQ called "Karaoke BBQ 8: The BBQ at the end of the Universe".
If you want to attend, you need to contact Melanie first (we imagine space is limited).
Hey all you Hoopy Froods, grab your towel and head on over to the first karaoke BBQ of the year, which happens to fall on Towel Day!
bring your towel and a dish to pass and/or whatever you want to drink
karaoke by Parioke
pangalactic gargle blaster cocktails by Eric
dogs and burgers, vegan options provided
game TBA
hitchhikers guide playing outside
Details and RSVP on Facebook AND PLEASE GET IN TOUCH via Facebook Messenger at Melanie Todoroff or todoroffmel@gmail.com if you want to come.
In Tampa, FL, at Shuffle a Towel Day Celebration Show start at 7:30pm.
"What better way to celebrate Towel Day in honor of the late Douglas Adams than a live show at Tampa's favorite shuffleboard bar? Shuffle in the Tampa Heights neighborhood features indoor and outdoor shuffleboard courts, a full bar, and tasty burgers, wings, and other pub fare. The mini-amphitheater stage in the large back yard is a great addition for live music. Please join us for a fun evening while we make some noise. Music will start at 7:30pm. As always, don't forget your towel." Details and RSVP on Events.in
In Wilkesboro, NE, Wilkes County Public Library is celebrating Towel Day. Drop in for photo ops! Don't forget to brint your towel!
In Peoria Heights, IL, the public library runs a Towel Drive for the local animal protective services, Peoria County Animal Protective Services (AKA PCAPS).
They will encourage the public to donate a towel the week of May 20th, because they are closed on Towel Day.
Details here
In Lincoln, NE, from 13-26 May, software engineering company Don't Panic Labs runs their annual towel drive. They collect new and used towels for the People's City Mission, that has a constant need for towels. Towels are collected in numerous locations, and financial contributions for towels are also accepted.
The company's name was inspired by Adams' best-known novel, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where the words Don't Panic are printed on the cover of the Guide.
Details here
In Tampa, FL, some hitchhikers have put together a Towel Day celebration at a local shuffleboard-themed bar called Shuffle in the Tampa Heights neighborhood.
Shuffle has a full-service bar, kitchen that serves up tasty concession stand-style food (pizza, burgers, dogs, tots, etc...), indoor and outdoor shuffleboard courts, and a large back yard with a mini-amphitheater for live music.
Music will start at 7:30pm. As always, don't forget your towel!
Details and RSVP on Facebooks
In Washington DC, don't miss Towel Day 2024: A Party at the End of the Universe! Come celebrate author Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fandom with a raucous evening of nerdiness.
Don't be a strag! Power up your infinite improbability drive for an evening of mostly harmless fun before the universe ends (again) or Earth is bulldozed to build a hyperspace bypass (again)!
Buffet and cash bar (beer, wine, Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters*)
Best Towel contest
The worst Vogon poetry recitation this side of the MeagaBrantis star cluster
Galactic dance party
Sci-Fi cosplay hearily encouraged!
It's at the Astro Beer Hall from 7-11pm. Get your tickets now!
Details and tickets on Eventbrite *never drink more than two Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters unless you are a thirty ton mega elephant with bronchial pneumonia.
In Albuquerque, NM, the Public Library of Albuquerque-Bernalillo County is having a Towel Drive for Towel Day! "May 25 is Towel Day, a celebration of the life of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Participate in Towel Day by donating to our towel drive! Drop off your new or gently used towels at the branches listed from May 21 through May 25. Please drop off donations when the library is open
Towels will be donated to Watermelon Mountain Ranch, Animal Humane New Mexico, and Healthcare for the Homeless. Healthcare for the Homeless appreciates white towels, but any color is accepted! They will also accept washcloths. Details including branches taking towel donations here
Device42 celebrates Towel Day every year and this year you can win a very cool Don't Panic towel by scoring 60% or above in their online quiz on IT and the Hitchhiker's Guide! (limit 1 per person) Device42 are known for their full-stack agentless discovery and dependency mapping platform for Hybrid Cloud. It enables IT teams to run their operations more efficiently, solve problems faster, migrate and modernize with ease, and achieve compliance with flying colors. Device42 continuously discovers, maps, and optimizes infrastructure and applications across data centers and cloud, etc. These beings obviously know where their towels are.
The quiz can be found here
And Lofty Pursuits are selling their unique artisanal babel fish candy again. Watch how it's made.
This list is incomplete. Know about any Towel Day events we should add? Please mail us!
Want to organize a Towel Day event? Inspiration can be found in the Archives
NASA Astronaut Dan Tani speaking about Towel Day and towels on space missions
Thank you for being part of this & always remember: DON'T PANIC
This site is not endorsed by or associated with the Douglas Adams Estate, systemtoolbox.com, kojv.net, ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, Pan MacMillan, Penguin Group, Hyperion Books, Flickr, YouTube or any other organisation.
It is run by a bunch of Douglas Adams loving ape descendants who thought it was a shame that this domain was parked, and bought it. They are not liable for any incorrect information - the information on this site is provided in good faith, but may be inaccurate. Don't panic.
info at towelday dot org
