“A towel, [The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The camping/backpacking ones are tiny, large pill size easily, but they aren’t big towels, you get basically a disposable towelette out of one. Because physics, really.
And they are almost exclusively super thin and low quality. They do the job with a purpose, but you wouldn’t use one outside of emergency or backpacking or something.
There are ones that are tiny, but those are basically facial wipes. The actual towels are hand-sizes
I still don’t understand the point of these. Presumably the towel is going to be wet, no?
Disposable, consumer culture.
Takes less room and you might not need one right away so you have time to let it dry. Also even a wet towel can be handy.
But mostly I’ve seen these as just funny gimmick without much real use other than “oh wow that’s neat”
You’ve read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, right?
Nope
“A towel, [The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I’m not going to read all that
Fine, I’ll paraphrase it for you then. “Towels are really useful when you are traveling the galaxy LOL.”
So that vial is the size of a tennis ball container?
No, they come in many different sizes.
The camping/backpacking ones are tiny, large pill size easily, but they aren’t big towels, you get basically a disposable towelette out of one. Because physics, really.
And they are almost exclusively super thin and low quality. They do the job with a purpose, but you wouldn’t use one outside of emergency or backpacking or something.
always have a towel with you, they say.