Douglas Adams - 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'

Kohtumine numbriga kaks, sedant' puhku siis Douglas Adamsi ja juba tuttavate Arthur Denti, Ford Perfecti ja Zaphod Beeblebrox-iga ja seiklused universumis võivad jätkuda. Teises osas on ehk üllatusmomenti vähem, kuid absurdi ja humoreski osas ei jää küll kuidagi esimesele kirjutisele kuidagi alla. 

Juba algus oli birljantne:

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” 

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. 

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Kirkamad hetked kuuluvad:

• universumi isale ja tema arvamistele;
• restoranis ennast eineks pakkunud veisele;
• teadmisele kuidas sai tegelikult elu planeedil maa alguse;

Ja mõningased ütelused:

“It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."

His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably shriveled up.

After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.”

“Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting "Gotcha". It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it.'

'Why not?'

'Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end.” 

“Would you like to see the menu?" he said, "or would you like meet the Dish of the Day?"

...

“Good evening,” it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, “I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body?”