Kari Maaren

43
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In The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Trillian kind of gets the short end of the stick.  This is a young woman with degrees in astrophysics and mathematics who runs away with a two-headed alien she meets at a party, and it takes Douglas Adams three books to give her anything much to do.  It's worse in the radio play (where she is forcibly married off to somebody or other between the first series and the second), the television series (where she becomes a blonde bimbo), and the film (where she is portrayed mostly as the Plucky Love Interest).  She does have potential, though.  This...is her song.

Recording
>

Lyrics
43
They say
42
Is the answer
To life, the universe, and everything.
Whatever
We do,
We’re contributing
To life, the universe, and everything.
On the bridge of the Heart of Gold,
As I watch the stars flash through the cold
Dark void of space, I’m told
I’m free.

The boys
Are okay
With our journey;
To them, the journey can be everything.
They see
No other way,
And it must be nice
To act as if the journey can be everything.
As I bounce around through space,
Almost all that’s left of the human race,
I know that there’s no place
For me;
I guess I’m 43.

It’s strange
That the strange
Doesn’t faze me;
I’ve come to expect the improbable.
It’s change
After change,
Is it possible
To get extremely sick of the improbable?
They assume that it’s all fine,
Part of some grand and planned design,
But I see there’s no sign
To see.

Oh, look:
There’s a whale
And a bowl of
Petunias instead of a missile.
That reality
Fail
Bothers only me,
Though I’m glad the whale is not a missile.
The astrophysics degree I earned
Is likely just as good as burned,
But only I’m concerned.
Just me.
I guess I’m 43.

42
Is the answer,
But the question isn’t clear.
Why don’t you
See the problem
Or seem to recall
That turning into penguins
In deep space after a Vogon fleet
Bulldozes your home planet
May be evidence that we’re
Not here at all?
You have some tea.
I ask you how.
I think I’ll talk
To Marvin now.

They say
It was mice
Who had interest
In life, the universe, and everything.
Built a computer
For advice
About the question
Of life, the universe, and everything.
If I buy that, I’ll have to buy
That there is no real reason why
We’re here, and that’s what I
Can’t see.

All I
Can do now
Is to go on
And hope really hard that the question fits.
If not,
I can’t see how
This is happening.
I bet we’ll never find out if the question fits.
Let’s have tea; it will be bad.
There’s a talking cow; that’s sad.
Perhaps I have gone mad.
Well, gee:
I guess I’m 43.
I guess I’m 43.
I guess I’m 43.

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Content copyright Kari Maaren 2013
Images copyright Kari Maaren, Phil Mills, Erik Mohr, and Karl Stahl 2013