In the Douglas Adams classic “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (which everyone should read when they are in their early teens and full of angst and sarcasm) he tells us three very important things: 

Don’t Panic 

Always bring a towel 

And of course… 

A computer named “Deep Thought” was constructed and toiled for 7.5 million years to compute and cross check “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.” 

The answer turns out to be “42” 

The operators were confused and Deep Thought explains that the answer is incomprehensible because the operators do not know what question they were really asking. The solution was to create an even larger computer called “Earth” which will run a 10 million year program to find the question to the answer 42. The earth was minutes away from producing the answer when it was destroyed in a case of intergalactic eminent domain in order to create a space travel super highway. 

Oh well. 

So what is “42” the answer to anyway? Let’s see… 

What is the angle that light needs to reflect off of water to create a rainbow? 

42 degrees

There are two physical constants in the universe and these are the speed of light and the diameter of a proton. How long does it take light to cross the diameter of a proton? 

10 the minus 42ndpower seconds.

How many gallons in a barrel of oil?

42 

For how many months is the beast in Revelations supposed to hold dominion over the world? 

42 

What was Jackie Robinson’s jersey number, the only number retired by all major league teams? 

42

How many territories in the classic boardgame Risk? 

42

At what age did Theodore Roosevelt become President of the United States and begin developing us into the greatest nation ever? 

42

And then, finally, what is my age as of today? 

42 

Those of you who are old enough and lucky enough to have been living in the Chicago-land-area on that day in 1974 will remember it as the day WGN began transmitting from the Sear Tower. My mother said she was in the delivery room, the station announced the change in transmitting towers, the TV stopped being fuzzy and out came me.

This former 5 pound, 8 ounce baby boy will be very busy today as I totally expect to find the answer to the ultimate question today. Making fuzzy pictures clearer seems to be my destiny from birth.

  

I gotta get going now…

  

So long and thanks for all the fish!