HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ucjtrjf@ucl.ac.uk (Jonny Farringdon)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Let's get DNA on the Net!
Date: 10 Nov 92 18:37:24 GMT
Organization: Bloomsbury Computing Consortium

>I have [shock, horror] fingered the alleged dna@cix.compulink.co.uk and it
>*does* exist.  It also has no listed real name for the account holder.

>(Nor does Terry Pratchett's, btw)

Roy!!  You do NOT understand what `finger' does.
      -------------------------------------------


Umm. i too fingered  {dna, douglas, adams, da, &c} at cix.compulink.co.uk
and found NO sign of him - or Pratchett -.

Indeed i posted as much (See my other post today)   Confused, I am.

What exactly did finger respond to you? ...

% nslookup 

Name:    cix.compulink.co.uk
Address:  192.188.69.2


% finger dna@192.188.69.2
[192.188.69.2]
Login name: dna                         In real life: ???

This means that `dna' is NOT an account on cix.compulink.co.uk !

(try it on your own machine with a fictional userid &c)

J.  ucjtrjf@ucl.ac.uk
From: xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Let's get DNA on the Net!
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 92 15:51:22 EST
Organization: Odd Parity Hacker's Group

> That's not a problem.
> DNA's mailbox automatically filters out any mail from people he doesn't 
> know. I suppose it goes to something like the mac equivallent of /dev/null...

Thats horrible! But necessary, I guess...

Daniel Max P. Drucker

=============== mertwig!xyzzy@jaflrn.uucp ==========================
#define slogan_1 Don't pick on me, I'm only 14.
#define slogan_2  Hey! Lets port it to COBOL!

Difficulty! It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!
Hi, I'm a .sig virus! Copy me into your .sig and spread the fun!
=========== uupsi!utoday!jaflrn!mertwig!xyzzy ======================
From: jseaver@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Jason John Seaver)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: "How to leave a planet" - where is this from?
Date: 8 Nov 92 16:50:03 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <721170301snx@n5ial.chi.il.us> jim@n5ial.chi.il.us (Jim Graham) writes:
>In article <1dc4f3INNarn@bigboote.WPI.EDU> jseaver@bigwpi.WPI.EDU writes:
>

>> I think it's been in every bound-as-one-book edition of the trilogy.
>> I've only PERSONALLY seen it in _The Hitchhiker's Trilogy_ and _The More
>> Than Complete Hitchhiker's Trilogy_ (y'know, the leatherbound one).
>
>I've got it in a plain old hardback edition (what exactly is a
>``leatherbound'' edition, anyways?  I've never seen any of the HHGTTG
>books with a leather type cover) of {The Hitchhiker's Trilogy / Omnibus
>Edition}.

	It's a prettied-up copy of "The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's
Trilogy".  It includes the first four books, the inconsistency/How To Leave the
Planet introduction, and Young Zaphod Plays It Safe.  The cover is leather,
the endpages have a Smiling Planet pattern, and there's a cloth bookmark
bound into the book.  Bought it in Waldenbooks for $19.95.  I didn't consider
that a bad price AT ALL when you consider MH is $20 in hardback and the
leatherbound edition is damn near indestructable under normal conditions.

					-Jay
 
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
From: leveret@warren.demon.co.uk (Nick Leverton)
ReplyTo: leveret@warren.demon.co.uk
Subject: Re: zb: Re: Let's get DNA on the Net!
Distribution: world
X-Mailer: cppnews $Revision: 1.19 $
Organization: Indexed; Access: Random.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 12:17:01 +0000

In article <Bx7A1s.LIq@acsu.buffalo.edu> v120qldp@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu
(ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX) answers me:

>>Err, I have it on *very* good authority ;-) that he has one (and I don't
>>mean Compuserve, either ...), and that he knows about this newsgroup.
>
>I have it on very good authority that you are wrong.   I got it from what
>Douglas said in Toronto and on Larry King.  He knows the newsgroup exists, but
>does not have an Internet address, merely a CI$ account.

Err, I have an account on the same system as him (not this one! :-)),
and I can categorically assure you that DNA *does* have a bona fide
Internet mailing address and Usenet access. But, as I implied, he rarely
has time to use it even as it is.

Nick.
Xref: sparky alt.fan.douglas-adams:4073 soc.culture.jewish:19864
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Pizza delivery
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:06:06 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Followup-To: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: ENGC9241548F@LUST.LATROBE.EDU.AU (WALSH,Michael J.)

In article <1992Nov12.075801.9678@lugb.latrobe.edu.au>, ENGC9241548F@LUST (WALSH,Michael J.) writes:
>I was both amused and shocked when I first read Long Dark Tea-Time of the
>Soul and learnt that Londoners, if not all of England, don't have pizza
>delivery. Has society evolved there since then or is it still a hellish
>world in which delivered pizza simply does not exist? How can you people
>live?

Hah!  The exact opposite situation exists in very strict religious Jewish
communities, like Bnei Brak.  There, pizza delivery is _required_ by the
local rabbinical authorities.  (The rabbis do not want any hangouts.)
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
From: ccullen@ops-2.Naitc.Com (Carolyn Cullen)
Subject: Chicago Booksigning report/etc. 
Organization: AC Nielsen Co., Bannockburn IL
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 14:17:51 GMT

The DNA appearance at Barbara's Bookstore in Chicago last night was great.

He read from Mostly Harmless (the part where Ford rewires the robot),
Restaurant (Marvin is left to fight off the Frogstar robot...He did
Marvin's voice just like in the radio/tv shows), and Last Chance to See,
which he says is his favorite book.

He says his next project is another Dirk Gently book. Looks like 
Mostly Harmless is the end of Hitchhikers, but he didn't swear to it.

And yes, i asked him about internet access (feeling like a bit of a geek)
and he repeated how he has access to applelink and Compuserv, and said
he wasn't sure of the process of getting an internet account and such.
If someone would like to mail him and tell him how he already has 
access, we could stop the debate over it. I had no reason to think he
was just putting me on, but he probably has much more to do than read 
postings like the endless debate over 42, anyway :).

Dunno who said he doesn't have any English accent, I'd disagree.
He read and talked for an hour, then signed books, yes, even for the people
who brought in ALL of them.  He also signed towels, and seemed perfectly
relaxed, friendly and witty.

Carolyn 

-- 
Carolyn Cullen		Animals have hopping and flying and
ccullen@nis.naitc.com	crawling and swimming, but they don't 
A.C.Nielsen, IL		have wheels.--cac	DoD#450
From: Richard.Dalton@newcastle.ac.uk (Richard Dalton)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Douglas Adams Interview in East Lansing
Date: 13 Nov 92 13:29:12 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU

hal@radio.wkar.msu.edu (Hal Prentice) writes:

[ Stuff deleted ]

>It has probably been conveyed in the group in previous postings, but I will 
>pose it nevertheless.  Based on a tape of DA reading his work, he IS the 
>voice of Marvin, the Paranoid Android (on radio and TV.)

He is *not* the voice of Marvin on radio (or, i don't think, on TV for
that matter). Simon Jones (I think, i'm trying to remember the credits
at the end of each CD episode) was Marvin on the radio series (and probably
the TV as well).

	Rich 'Z'


===============================================================================
         Computing Laboratory          | Email: Richard.Dalton@Newcastle.ac.uk
   University of Newcastle Upon Tyne   | Email: usr10131@tso.uc.edu
===============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Shada
From: fenick1@husc10.harvard.edu (Sharon Fenick)
Date: 13 Nov 92 14:30:20 EST
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

I know, this has been gone over a few times, but I missed 
it.  Will someone please email me with how to get the 
Shada video: company, address, phone number, location,
something?  I will also send this information out to 
anyone who emails asking for it, that is, assuming I get
it.

Sorry if it's a faq, I don't think it made the faql yet, I
could be wrong.

Sharon
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Is 'Mostly Harmless' the end? ** Possible SPOILERS **
From: mastr@husc10.harvard.edu (claudia mastroianni)
Date: 10 Nov 92 23:11:41 EST
Organization: Harvard University Science Center
Keywords: Mostly Harmless

In article <1992Nov6.011422.34430@plasma.apana.org.au> jgh@plasma.apana.org.au (John Gerald Howell) writes:
>Anyone heard anything about the future of the hitch-hiker series?
>Is 'Mostly Harmless' the ultimate end? It seems that way on reading it,
>but has anyone talked to Douglas Adams himself about it (at a book
>signing or whatever) Or are we going to see a new Dirk Gently novel? Or
>something different altogether? Any news appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
>P.S - my towel would also appreciate some news.
>

In the same Cambridge, Mass. talk others have posted about, Douglas Adams
said he thought his next book would be a Dirk Gently.  I don't know about
Hitch-hikers, and didn't really want to ask.  If he comes up with something
he's love to write concerning that universe, I'll buy it.  The mind that
came up with the Guide II can definitely find a loophole in the current
ending (some have been discussed already).

If he doesn't, I'm glad to read what he writes next.  I do miss Fenchurch,
Arthur, etc., however.

My towel greets your towel, fuzzily, but knows no more on this than I do.

-- Claudia
From: pwhite@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter White)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Anyone noticed that Clinton's the 42nd president?
Date: 13 Nov 92 12:52:22 GMT
Reply-To: pwhite@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter White)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs

In article <s0319198.14.0@let.rug.nl>, s0319198@let.rug.nl (E.B. Meijerink) writes:


|> 
|> I've been away for a while, so I could have missed the discussion, but 'has 
|> anyone noticed that Clinton is going to be the 42nd president'? I wonder 
|> what that means......
|> 
|> 
|> Cheers!
|> 
|> Erik Meijerink                    ||
|> University of Groningen (Neth.)   || 'Do you TRUST this man?' 
|> E-Mail: s0319198@let.rug.nl       ||

If Clinton IS the answer what the hell IS the question ??

/---------------------------------------------------------/
P.White
The views represented here do not reflect those of my organisation 
Xref: sparky alt.fan.douglas-adams:4081 rec.arts.sf.written:14808
From: uerics@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric D. Shepherd)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Hitchhiker Radio Play on CDs?
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:00:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: mcl.uerics.721591205
Followup-To: alt.fan.douglas-adams

So putting that address on an envelope will get my letter to London
(obviously, I'd mention the fact that I do, indeed, mean London
_England_)?  I plan to request a catalog.

- Eric S.
  (Yeah, I spell "catalog" without the bloody "ue" at the end.  What to
make something of it? :)

--
Eric D. Shepherd                   | Apple II Alliance Charter Member
InterNet: uerics@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu  |           ACM Member
FidoNet:  1:206/2713 Eric Shepherd | Programming Law #1: "When in
AOL:      Sheppy                   | doubt, rewrite from scratch."
From: ST102315@brownvm.brown.edu ()
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Thoughts on MOSTLY HARMLESS (spoilers)
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 15:04:09 EST
Organization: Brown University - Providence, Rhode Island  USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: brownvm.brown.edu
News-Software: BNN via BNN_POST v1.0 beta

>|> >>|> *** WARNING. POSSIBLE SPOILERS! *** READ MOSTLY HARMLESS FIRST ***

>|> Unfortunately for the Earth, this way out is impossible as the Guide
>|> Mark II was destroyed at the same time the rest of the Earths were.
>|> Sad but true.  :)
>
>This I don't see. It is very clearly **on** the Vogon ship after the Earth(s)
>are destroyed, and Bob knows what will happen to it next.

I'd like to give the exact quote, but unfortunately can't; however, I
remember that soon after the Earth is destroyed, the Vogon captain says
"Lights on", but he ends up having to turn them on himself because the
Guide II got munched at the same time the Earth was.  Check it out!

(And, of course, if I'm wrong, I'll feel a complete idiot.  Oh, well,
I've been there before...)

>|> >Also since the Earth was man-made as described in the first book we
>|> >could just have a new one made. As long as the blueprints are on file.
>|>
>|> This is more probable...except that the economic structure of the
>|> Galaxy can't afford this kind of thing anymore.  Of course, if the mice
>|> decide to give it another shot....
>
>This, I don't see. It's been done once, it's played out, it's booooring. If
DNA
>ever gets the urge to bring back HHGTTG, he'll have to work long and hard to
>come up with a good reason not to leave it alone - MH, as it stands, is a
>fitting ending.

I'll buy this.  I guess maybe "Mostly Harmless" was DNA's last, valiant
attempt to get free from the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, and hopefully
it was successful.  (I mean, yes, I really enjoyed all of the books, up
to and including "Mostly Harmless", but it's getting to feel like we're
forcing DNA to produce the things...and I think he's versatile enough
to be able to go on and delight us in new areas, if we let him.)

>|> My first post (Hey!  Look!  A Newbie!  Let's shoot it!),
>|> jwgh
>
>And a right pleasant one at that. Thanx for deleting the 50+ lines of my
>message that were getting bounced all over.

Aw, shucks....

-jwgh

PS.  Of course I had the (mis?)fortune to join the list shortly after
MH came out, but I'm curious if Adams creations other than Hitchhiker's
and Gently are discussed.  For instance, have people talked about
his Doctor Who episodes (among the best, IMHO), or his Infocom games
(I'm stuck in Bureaucracy at the moment...)?

Hmmm...  Perhaps I shouldn't have stuck this at the bottom of a post
which has ****SPOILERS**** splatted all over its beginning...oh well.

Enjoying himself,
jwgh
From: ajdh@bnr.co.uk (Andrew J D Hurley)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Pizza delivery
Date: 12 Nov 1992 12:11:15 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, London Road, Harlow, England.
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.199.129.86

In article <1992Nov12.075801.9678@lugb.latrobe.edu.au> ENGC9241548F@LUST.LATROBE.EDU.AU (WALSH,Michael J.) writes:
>I was both amused and shocked when I first read Long Dark Tea-Time of the
>Soul and learnt that Londoners, if not all of England, don't have pizza
>delivery. Has society evolved there since then or is it still a hellish
>world in which delivered pizza simply does not exist? How can you people
>live?
>					-Michael W.

Fortunately, things have changed. Most towns can now get Pizza
delivered - unfortunately I live 3 miles from the nearest town
and they won't come out that far :-(


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J D Hurley ,   <><         |  Email:   A.J.D.Hurley@bnr.co.uk
                                  |   or      Andrew.Hurley.EG40@bnr.ca
BNR Europe Ltd., London Road,     |  route:   uunet!ukc!bnr!ajdh
Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK.       |  Phone:   +44 279 402535
From: ginsu@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Wes Simonds)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Thoughts on MOSTLY HARMLESS (spoilers)
Date: 11 Nov 92 08:52:58 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

Darel J. Simpson writes:

>memory). Anyhow, Ford likes all animals in the universe, except geese. He just
>felt that he'd done enough with all the other causes he was helping out in, 
>it was time that something else suffered.  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ummm... is this the same Ford Prefect whose original character definition, as
written by Adams, was 'given the choice between saving the universe and going
to a party, he would always go to the party?'  It is a major character flaw
of the book, and a consequence of Adams' personal agenda, that Ford has 
basically abandoned his entire psychology for Mostly Harmless.

A shame.  If it had been funny I might have forgiven DNA, but it wasn't.
From: drwho@parrot.WPI.EDU (Eric Ant Von Laudermann)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: "How to leave a planet" - where is this from?
Date: 7 Nov 92 03:29:30 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: parrot.wpi.edu

In article <9gJoTB6w165w@sday.pulp.nullnet.fi> jute@sday.pulp.nullnet.fi (Jussi Kantola) writes:
>
>Could someone tell me where the following text has been published?
>
>--Cut--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                How to Leave the Planet:

[etc.]

There's actually much more to "How to Leave the Planet" than just the
phone numbers bit.  The whole thing is in Neil Gaiman's "Don't
Panic!", which is a history of DNA's life up until just before "Last
Chance to See".  "How to Leave the Planet" was apparently originally 
written for an ad campaign of some sort.

--E.V.L. (drwho@wpi.wpi.edu)  # "No.  Try not.  Do.  Or do not.  There
a.k.a.:  The Eternal Newbie,  # is no try."  --Yoda
The Amazing Tubeman!,         # 
Murphy's Law Incarnate        # "Just do it." --Nike
Any similarities what I say and what I mean are purely coincidental.
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
From: bjornts@ii.uib.no (Bjoern Tore Sund)
Subject: Re: Let's get DNA on the Net!
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Bergen
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 14:52:35 GMT

In article <13Nov1992.061727.195529@hactar.hanse.de>, wusel@hactar.hanse.de (Kai 'wusel' Siering) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov8.230510.2154@mksol.dseg.ti.com>, ctalbott@mksol.dseg.ti.com (christopher j talbott) writes:
|> 
|> % Let's DON'T get Douglas Adams on the net.  Let's let him WRITE, which
|> % is why we all enjoy his stuff in the first place.
|> 
|>  Despite he probably already IS on the net (without letting us know =:-<),
|> why not having him write *here also*?
|> 			kai

This is getting a little bit off hand. Why don't we just forget about the
subject? Consider the following:

Today it is very easy to get access both to the net, and to news. DNA has
admitted to knowing about the group - but not to having access to it. Whether
this is true or not is not really interresting, he either has access, or can
easily get it, but isn't interrested. That's _his_ choice, and there really
isn't a whole lot we can do about it. I don't see the point in "having" anyone
post on this group, if they don't want to - including the main person, so to
speak. Let's leave it at that shall we?

-- 
    ___   ___
__  |__)   |    Bjoern Tore Sund (BT)   Quote: "Nothing!"
    |__)   |    bjornts@ii.uib.no              - Marvin

Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
From: Onno.Meyer@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Onno Meyer)
Subject: MH in Germany
Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 07:01:14 GMT

Some time ago, I asked if anybody was able to buy MH in Germany.

Yesterday my copy arrived.
The bookshop had ordered the book in the US first, and then told
me "not yet published". When I told them to try to order the book
in the UK, it arrived within 10 days. I paid DM 47.
-- 
* Onno Meyer - Kastanienallee 40 - 2900 Oldenburg - Deutschland  *
*     e-mail: Onno.Meyer@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de        *
* Mathe-Student, und auch etwas Informatik...                    *
From: jute@sday.pulp.nullnet.fi (Jussi Kantola)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Mostly Harmless (Spoilers)
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 92 00:11:57 EET
Distribution: world
Organization: Splattersday

oneil@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:

_Mostly Harmless_ spoilers.



> waveforms collapsing? How did the Vogon commander get a copy of The
> Guide Mark II?

He had cooked the whole Guide Mark II -soup up!  He did it *only* to
demolish the earth once and for all.  That was why Mark II existed
-- the probability waveforms apparently collapsed after it had done
it's job, along with the Guide Mark II.  The bird was gone, remember?

> And how was it that the Gremulon leader blowing up
> one Earth destroyed all of the Earths in all of the different
> probabilities that existed?

I must admit that this puzzles me.

No!  It doesn't anymore!!  I got a great idea!  See, you asked
how Trillian got to that particular Earth?  Well, I don't know _how_,
but it was arranged by reverse engineering.  Why?  Because the vogon
leader had to do his job which was to do his job, which was to _destroy
the Earth-computer and all the 'particles' in it -- us, the human
beings!_.  And that was because the psychologists were afraid
-- again -- of the fact that there might be the Answer _and_ the Question
to the Life, the Universe and Everything!  Gag Halfrunt was the leader of
the group of psychologists who 'ordered the demolition', if I may say so.
Well, Gag didn't mind about the vogons' failure so much after he had
found out that the mice had _invented_ the Question,  but the vogons
were too stubborn to leave the job undone.  So after trying to blow up
the Heart of Gold and destroying an unnumbered amount of Earths, they
decided to finally get the job Done.
And that lead to this situation:
  The grebulons did NOT demolish all the Earths!  They blew up just
  the one, and it was enough -- along went the only persons who had
  survived the original demolition and started to hitch-hike around
  the galaxy, time and probability.  Arthur and Trillian were the
  _only_ Arthur and Trillian, who had survived the 'first' demolition,
  and killing them was enough to get the job Done!  In all the other
  Earths that had been demolished, Arthur and Trillian (Tricia) had gone
  within'!  And, once again, they were brought to that particular
  Earth by temporal reverse engineering.

   Am I making any sense?


---wop------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jussi Kantola    | Internet: jute@sday.pulp.nullnet.fi (jute@gadox.cirion.fi)
 Paltamo, Finland | "See first, think later, then test" -Wonko the Sane
------------------------------------------------------------------------foop--
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
From: bermand@maths.tcd.ie (daniel berman)
Subject: Pizza delivery (in Ireland)
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 09:50:36 GMT

Well Michael, You'll be glad to know that here in Ireland, as in Britain, we now have order-out pizzas.  And I should know because there's a really cute girl in our local, so if she's reading (and she'll know who she is).. You're a Babe!!!!
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: What is a Ford Prefect anyway?
Date: 8 Nov 92 19:41:01 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: martin@cs.curtin.edu.au (Martin Dougiamas)

In article <martin.721226718@marsh>, martin@cs (Martin Dougiamas) writes:
>                                      A friend of mine had independently
>noticed it too.... this book is a lot less "british" (whatever that is)
>than the others.  I mean the subject matter, not the writing style.

For example, I am one of the millions of Americans who have gone
through life with no idea there was a British car called the Ford
Prefect, as DNA explains in his preface to the omnibus edition.

So what was it?  A winner of a car?  A famous dud?

At least I know there's a joke regarding Ford's failed attempt at
choosing an innocuous name.  While I'm at it, I'm curious is there
something that Britishers know about the name Slartibartfast that
caused Arthur to gag that us Americans are missing out on?
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)