Can it really be 42 years since the first transmission of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? I do not remember exactly when I got into it. I heard some of the radio programmes, but back then you had to be able to tune in at the appropriate time. I read all the books and that is a cassette of Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
The books are mostly different editions. My So Long... lost its 'hologram' at some point.
I enjoy Adams' inventive comedy and have re-read all the novels. We had the 1980s TV series and 2005 movie. Douglas tried for years to get it made, but died during production of a heart attack at just 49. Apparently there may be a new TV version next year. We shall see if that can capture the spirit of it.
The Dirk Gently books have also been on the radio and there have been two different TV versions by the BBC and Netflix. They were all a bit different. He was working on a third book when he died and there is an excerpt in The Salmon of Doubt.
I played the text adventure game on various computers. I had it for the Amiga, but never finished it. The BBC had a version with some graphics on their site. I have some memory that I was able to run it on a Psion 3 handheld as there were various apps that could use the Infocom data files.
I even have the Eagles album that includes the theme tune Journey of the Sorcerer, but I was just into the Eagles anyway.
So Douglas Adams has been an influential person in my life. A couple of people I know had some encounter with him on the phone or in person, but I never did. I expect conversations with him would be great. He was a guitarist who jammed with David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. @hockney has one of his amplifiers that was being part of the collection sold off by a London music shop. His guitars would be of little use to me as he was left-handed.
Several of my favourite authors have died too young, including Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks, but all three of these have produced amazing bodies of work. They will live on in those.
In these times of crisis we should remember his most famous two words...
DON'T PANIC (in large friendly letters)