# Surrealism at Walmart **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 12, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576 "2002-08-12T18:32:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gretchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Miss\_Gretchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gretchen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/61 "2002-08-15T04:50:07Z")
OK, OK, I gotta ask - what’s all the “the answer is 42” business going on here? This sort of rings a bell but I’m not really sure what it refers to. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/62 "2002-08-15T05:01:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wireless \* > \*\*Anybody else see a possible connection between Scylla’s odd encounter in the Wal-mart parking lot and the kidnapping of the 1-month old in Texas in another Wal-mart parking lot? > > In that case, the kidnapper was seen on the surveillance tape to have been driving around, “casing” the parking lot, waiting for the right moment. \*\* Muwhaha! And I live in the city it happened in! I’ve shopped at that Wal-Mart dozens of times! ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/63 "2002-08-15T05:07:27Z")
"OK, OK, I gotta ask - what’s all the “the answer is 42” business going on here? This sort of rings a bell but I’m not really sure what it refers to. " I think it’s a Douglas Adams quote from the “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. But, damned if I can remember the exact quote though. ☹ [Sigh…everyone’s special in their own way…everyone has at least one good quality…we’re all god’s children.] "Again not to cause a fight, but I think this is one of the two great lies we are told as children. " Personally, I think “special” is relative and just leave it at that. "The other (lie) is “You can be anything you want to be.” " Oh, I DEFINATLY agree there… ---
**Author:** ![erin\_uh\_oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@erin\_uh\_oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erin_uh_oh)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/64 "2002-08-15T06:22:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > \*\*You’re sure it wasn’t a Circle K? Strange things are often afoot at the Circle K. \*\* yes! that was my email sig line for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/65 "2002-08-15T06:50:53Z")
Well, looks like I’m the first geek on the scene, so I’ll answer the _Hitchhikers_ question. In Douglas Adams’ _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_, a race of super-intelligent aliens create the biggest computer in the galaxy, one powerful enough to finally find the secret of life, the universe, and everything. It works for years and years, and finally answers, “42.” So, having the answer, the aliens build an _even bigger_ computer to calculate what the _question_ is. The computer is the size of a planet. In fact, it is a planet. This planet. The aliens, who are small, furry, and have hairless tails, hide themselves amongst the native population (also part of the computer, which is basically the entire ecosystem of Earth). Moments before the calculation is supposed to be completed, a Vogon interstellar road crew (who’ve been paid off by an coalition of philosophers afraid of losing their jobs) shows up a blows up the Earth, setting off all sorts of wacky hijinks. Now, the thing to understand is, this has become the _single most overused cliche on the internet_. Legions and legions of geeks have seized on this rather tepid comedic sci-fi novel and turned it into some sort of sub-cultural touchstone, bestowing on it the sort of undeserved appreciation and inexplicable importance normally not seen outside of the Academy Awards. There is no place on the internet where you cannot make even the most tangenital reference to “the meaning of life” without _at least_ one person piping up with “42!” like he’s the very soul of wit and originality. Not that I’m, y’know, bitter about it or anything. It’s just that this joke is getting terribly, terribly old, and someone really needs to put out of its misery. Or my misery, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/66 "2002-08-15T06:54:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jurhael \* > \*\*"OK, OK, I gotta ask - what’s all the “the answer is 42” business going on here? This sort of rings a bell but I’m not really sure what it refers to. " > > I think it’s a Douglas Adams quote from the “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. But, damned if I can remember the exact quote though. :(\*\* It starts in chapter 27 of the first book of the 5 book Hitchhiker’s trilogy. Deep Thought, the second greatest computer built in all time, past and future, is posed the ultimate question: the question of life, the universe, and everything. Loonquawl and Phouchg, who should be played by two of the Lone Gunmen if the book ever gets made into a movie, finally get the answer. `Seventy-five thousand generations ago, our ancestors set this program in motion,'' the second man said, `and in all that time we will be the first to hear the computer speak.’’ ``An awesome prospect, Phouchg,’’ agreed the first man, and Arthur suddenly realized that he was watching a recording with subtitles. `We are the ones who will hear,'' said Phouchg, `the answer to the great question of Life …!’’ ``The Universe …!’’ said Loonquawl. ``And Everything …!’’ `Shhh,'' said Loonquawl with a slight gesture, `I think Deep Thought is preparing to speak!’’ There was a moment’s expectant pause whilst panels slowly came to life on the front of the console. Lights flashed on and off experimentally and settled down into a businesslike pattern. A soft low hum came from the communication channel. ``Good morning,’’ said Deep Thought at last. `Er ... Good morning, O Deep Thought,'' said Loonquawl nervously, `do you have … er, that is …’’ `An answer for you?'' interrupted Deep Thought majestically. `Yes. I have.’’ The two men shivered with expectancy. Their waiting had not been in vain. ``There really is one?’’ breathed Phouchg. ``There really is one,’’ confirmed Deep Thought. ``To Everything? To the great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?’’ ``Yes.’’ Both of the men had been trained for this moment, their lives had been a preparation for it, they had been selected at birth as those who would witness the answer, but even so they found themselves gasping and squirming like excited children. ``And you’re ready to give it to us?’’ urged Loonquawl. ``I am.’’ ``Now?’’ ``Now,’’ said Deep Thought. They both licked their dry lips. `Though I don't think,'' added Deep Thought, `that you’re going to like it.’’ `Doesn't matter!'' said Phouchg. `We must know it! Now!’’ ``Now?’’ inquired Deep Thought. ``Yes! Now …’’ ``Alright,’’ said the computer and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable. ``You’re really not going to like it,’’ observed Deep Thought. ``Tell us!’’ `Alright,'' said Deep Thought. `The Answer to the Great Question …’’ ``Yes …!’’ ``Of Life, the Universe and Everything …’’ said Deep Thought. ``Yes …!’’ ``Is …’’ said Deep Thought, and paused. ``Yes …!’’ ``Is …’’ ``Yes …!!!..?’’ ``Forty-two,’’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm. Sorry for the long quote, but it doesn’t make much sense without the other bits. The books go on to connect it to base 13, roads a man must walk down, scrabble, Earth, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/67 "2002-08-15T07:02:43Z")
Wow, evil twin simulpost. My post is just like **Wikkit** ’s, except with a goatee. ---
**Author:** ![Monalisa9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@Monalisa9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monalisa9)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/68 "2002-08-15T14:07:30Z")
Interestinsg story, but it’s suffering from insufficient Dada. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/69 "2002-08-15T14:32:16Z")
[quote] ## quote: ## Sigh…everyone’s special in their own way…everyone has at least one good quality…we’re all god’s children. Again not to cause a fight, but I think this is one of the two great lies we are told as children. The other is “You can be anything you want to be.” I mean that seriously. I think those are damaging lies. Damaging, how? Tellng kids that they have no good qualities and that they can’t achieve their dreams is just wrong. Granted, not everybody can be anything they want to be, but they can **aspire** to be what they want to be. Say a kid wants to be an NBA star, but he doesn’t have the skills. The kid could still be involved in pro sports, maybe by getting a business degree and going to work in the local team’s front office, or maybe by getting involved in sports medicine and becoming a team doctor. The important thing is that we encourage a kid to explore as many avenues of achievement as possible so that he or she can discover his or her talents. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/70 "2002-08-15T14:39:59Z")
Why did you post this in the Pit **Scylla**? Were you looking for a response along **Rilchiam** ’s lines? My guess is the the woman was a Doper and was playing the game of **Six Degrees of Scylla’s Manhood**. The answer she was _really_ hoping for - knowing the game to be unwinnable - was for you to draw yourself up to your full height whilst holding your breath for ages, preen briefly, adjust yourself (for purely medical reasons), then let forth in gusset-rending _basso profundo_: “I’m electrifying, baby.” ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gretchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Miss\_Gretchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gretchen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/71 "2002-08-15T16:14:20Z")
Jurhael, Miller, Wikkit- Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/72 "2002-08-15T17:17:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hawthorne \* > \*\*Why did you post this in the Pit **Scylla**? Were you looking for a response along **Rilchiam** ’s lines? > \*\* Never ask the sausage guy what it’s made out of. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/73 "2002-08-15T17:37:19Z")
That is a damn good answer. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/74 "2002-08-16T05:44:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > **Now, the thing to understand is, this has become the _single most overused cliche on the internet_. Legions and legions of geeks have seized on this rather tepid comedic sci-fi novel and turned it into some sort of sub-cultural touchstone, bestowing on it the sort of undeserved appreciation and inexplicable importance normally not seen outside of the Academy Awards. There is no place on the internet where you cannot make even the most tangenital reference to “the meaning of life” without _at least_ one person piping up with “42!” like he’s the very soul of wit and originality.** Tepid? _ **Tepid** _?! Feh, I say Feh. The 42 bit is overused, but what popular book doesn’t have some bit that is overused? I do try to make much more obscure references, and most of them are never even spotted. Tepid… nothing Bop Ad could ever do would be tepid. He could do the literary equivalent of Cage’s 4’33" and it wouldn’t be tepid. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/75 "2002-08-17T01:35:33Z")
While we’re at it, let’s retire the phrase, “Catch-22,” from the English language. How about it? Didn’t think so. Forty-two! Back to the OP, the answer to “_Who_ are you?” is, “I’m fine, who are you?” as any (Groucho) Marxist knows. But “_What_ are you?” allows a great deal more latitude in one’s response. “I’m an alien from the planet Zorta” ? Probably effective in that circumstance, but kinda hackneyed. “I’m a six-foot protozoan that has evolved to the point of wearing clothes and talking with strangers in parking lots” ? That wouldn’t be too bad. “I’m the Evil One, and I’ve come to claim your soul” would be _very_ effective with many Wal-Martians, but there’s a chance the Wal-Martian might call the police on you, and while I don’t know what they could possibly charge you with, it would still be a nuisance. “I’m the hunter of Evil Nazi Groundhogs” would work just fine with Dopers, but would totally whoosh a Wal-Martian, so don’t try that in the parking lot, either there or at the Circle-K. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/76 "2002-08-17T02:25:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*I don’t like being accosted in parking lots by complete strangers with inquiries as to my nature. \*\* Make sure you never go out wearing a top hat then! ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/77 "2002-08-17T02:42:33Z")
I’m a little miffed nobody picked up on my Andre Breton comment and the Rene Magritte allusion. Fine, I’ll just go watch _Un Chien Andalou_ by myself then! (flounces off in a huff, juggling toasters and skipping) ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/78 "2002-08-17T07:38:22Z")
I’m sorry **gobear** , I got the “This is not a pipe thing.” _pets **gobear** and gives him a cookie_ ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/79 "2002-08-17T10:56:20Z")
I got the Magritte thing too! Do I get a prize? And as for 42, Douglas Adams was an agent for the Illuminati, and 42 was just a red herring to disguise the true role of the number 23 in all of our lives (Hail Eris!). ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576/80 "2002-08-17T11:18:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Now, the thing to understand is, this has become the single most overused cliche on the internet. No cliche in my post. My depiction of the events was 100% accurate, and the dialogue quoted verbatim. 'At’s why it was so creepy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrealism-at-walmart/123576.md?page=5)