The Miraculous Babel Fish: Arthur Dent’s B-Fish

This fish wants to hitchhike the length and breadth of the galaxy for less than thirty Alterian Dollars a day. Its primary goal is for You (his host) to take a picture of him in, or near your ear. Its ultimate goal is for you to get someone famous or recognizable to take a picture in the same manner and post all pictures on this page. - I.E. You, Your Friends & Family, (of course) or International Celebrities like Christopher Walken, Mel Gibson, Mike Myers, Cameron Diez; Local Celebrities like news and radio personalities; Local heros like Cops and Firemen, military personnel in uniform; (especially the brass) Most especially anyone who loved reading and rereading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What a wonderful excuse/opportunity to walk up to another person and get him or her to do something crazy. Post your experiences and pictures here, or leave a note about the book, or a tribute to Douglas Adams on my cache page: Veet Voojagig's Ballpoint Planet.

Anyone who is unwilling or unable to further the experiences of The Miraculous B-Fish should leave him in another cache as soon as possible. Take as long as you like with him as long as you're having fun and introducing him to new people. Keep his page updated while you visit with him. I had so much fun with him that I am planning to release at least five more B-Fish in different areas of the country. (California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Louisiana)

The following is a partial excerpt regarding the Babel Fish from the book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy....

"The Babel Fish," said The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy quietly, "is small, yellow and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brain-wave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of this is that if you stick a Babel Fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by the Babel Fish." *****

"Meanwhile, the poor Babel Fish by effectively removing all barriers to communication to different races and cultures has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of the universe." - abridged excerpt from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

***** The Guide digresses a bit between the first paragraph and the second. Do yourself a favor; for the full story; get yourself a copy of the book.

For those who are already fans of the series, Arthur placed this little B-Fish in the crystal bowl that was the departing gift to Him from the Dolphin Race...

I hope this little Babel Fish is as fun for you as it has been for me. Please take good care of him and don't reveal his serial number in your pictures. Fans will also note that there's a "42" in that number. I didn't notice until I had already assigned the tag. Another Koo-inky-dink just like in the books.#### After my initial experiment. I decided to include some safety equipment. I have included a care/personal safety package that users should replenish as needed. Package includes: ear plugs and antibacterial wipes.... Coming soon: Ford Prefect's B-Fish, Zaphod Beeblebrox's B-Fish, Slartibartfast's B-Fish, & Trillian's B-Fish.