Just to add my own name to the sorrow list. Hitch Hiker's Guide was one of the few radio programs of that era to hold me, and it is one of the few writings that can still make me laugh out loud. The writing worked at different levels, concept, narrative and characterisation, and the local asides and word play. An appropriate (for this board) wordplay from memory is where Arthur Dent is told by Ford Prefect that the effects of the Vogon hyper-space drive is like being drunk. "What's so bad about that?" "Try asking a glass of water". I enjoy his other books as well.

I read of Douglas Adam's death in the newspaper while I was halfway through my 5 minute warm up on the bike in the gym. Scary!

Rod