"I have had Alzheimer's now for the past two years plus. There's nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with the disease will double within a generation. It's a shock and a shame to find out that funding for research is 3% of that which goes to find cancer cures."

- Terry Pratchett OBE, Patron, Alzheimer's Research Trust

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Donation History



Last year's donation of earnings from the Squidoo page (which was taken down by Squidoo.com). If this blog earns any money from the ads, then it will be donated as well. Otherwise, at least it is up for the sake of awareness.


Do You Know Where Your Lilac Towel Is?

Combine Towel Day with Wear the Lilac Day!

Both Towel Day (from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Wear the Lilac Day fall on May 25th. Why not celebrate both at once with a lilac coloured towel?


    "A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker 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 vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft 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 to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); 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.

    More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

- Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


Links: Information and Community


Match It For Pratchett: Wear The Lilac - May 25th
It is a tribute to the Terry Pratchett's writing skills and his friendly attitude to fans that he has inspired not only Match It For Pratchet but a second campaigns to raise money Alzheimer's. In Nightwatch, the men who fought...


Lilac - Symbolism Wiki

Lilacs are purple flowers that are associated with the Language of Flowers. This flower is a symbol of the emotions of early love.


Terry Pratchett - UK Website : Homepage


Terry Pratchett - UK Website. UK website of the award winning author of the Discworld series


Memorable Icons Entries
Premade icons.


Wear The Lilac: Alzheimers Awarness- 25th May! | Forum | Gaia Online
A forum discussion about Wear the Lilac


Alzheimer's Research Trust - The leading UK research charity for dementia

Alzheimer's Research Trust is the leading charity funding UK research into the cause, cure, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and related forms of dementia including Lewy Body disease, vascular dementia and fronto-temporal dementia.0 points


How do they rise up?
Livejournal community.


Negotiable Affections
Fan blog.

The Seamstress Guild
Fan community.


The Glorious 25th of May on Tumblr


Glorious Revolution - Discworld & Pratchett Wiki

A summary of the revolution on the L-Space Wiki.

The People's Revolution of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May ended the increasingly tough reign of Lord Winder. Tension had been rising, and while the nobility arranged a quiet succession by Lord Snapcase in the background, the people on the streets started a revolution and attacked Watch Houses all over the city.

Terry Pratchett and Alzheimer's Disease: Video Interviews












Song: How Do They Rise Up?

A Fan's interpretation of the song to commemorate Wear the Lilac Day


How do they rise up,
Rise up, rise up?
How do they rise up,
Rise up high?


Book Quote: Were You There?





'Sarge?'
'Yes, Corporal Ping?'
'Why're some of you wearing purple flowers, sarge?'
There was a subtle change in the atmosphere, a suction of sound caused by many pairs of ears listening intently. All the officers in the room had stopped writing.
'I mean, I saw you and Reg and Nobby wearing 'em this time last year, and I wondered if we were all supposed to...' Ping faltered. Sergeant Colon's normally amiable eyes had narrowed and the message they were sending was: you're on thin ice, lad, and it's starting to creak.
'I mean, my landlady's got a garden and I could easily go and cut a-' Ping went on, in an uncharacteristic attempt at suicide.
'You'd wear the lilac today, would you?' said Colon quietly. 'I just meant that if you wanted me to I could go and-'
'Were you there?' said Colon, getting to his feet so fast that his chair fell over.
'Steady, Fred,' murmured Nobby.
'I didn't mean-' Ping began. 'I mean ... was I where, sarge?'
Colon leaned on the desk, bringing his round red face an inch away from Ping's nose.
'If you don't know where there was, you weren't there,' he said, in the same quiet voice.

Commemorative Official & Fan Made Stuff

Want to buy something official for Wear the Lilac day? Try these links first (some may be out of stock, but are still worth looking at).




...And a Hard-boiled Egg! | Discworld Emporium
Commemorate the Glorious 25th May from Terry Pratchett's Night Watch with our hard-boiled egg - exclusive to Discworld Emporium!

THE GLORIOUS 25TH OF MAY COMMEMORATIVE PACK
Limited Edition

 
Limited Edition! THE GLORIOUS 25TH OF MAY LBE
A special 'Little Brown Envelope' commemorating the Glorious Revolution and People's Rebublic of Treacle Mine Road.

Each envelope in this edition contains an assortment of Discworld stamps, along wiith a limited edition Lilac Patrician and adjoined Glorious Twenty-Fifth postal label. Also included in every LBE is a mint example of the much requested $1 Duty Stamp* - as featured in our Portal Properties rental lease.

 
THE GLORIOUS 25TH OF MAY LILAC PATRICIAN
In tribute to the revolutionaries of Treacle Mine Road, this limited edition Penny Patrician from the Ankh-Morpork Post office is wearing Lilac. Each stamp is accompanied by a commemorative postal label and both are presented on one beautiful sheet, available while stocks last.


Unofficial Stuff

These lovely silk pins were a massive fundraiser initiative, but are no longer available.

Wear the Lilac Towels

An embroidered and beautiful meeting of Pratchett and Adams

This towel has a beautiful lilac on one end and "Don't Panic" stitched on the other end. The towel measures 14.5 by 23.5 and proceeds were donated equally to the Alzheimer's Association (atz.org) and Alzheimer's Research Trust UK.

Book Quote: Vimes and the Lilacs

Vimes strolled back to the house. Off the register? Was he allowed to appeal? Perhaps they thought –
The scent rolled over him.

He looked up.

Overhead, a lilac tree was in bloom.

He stared.

Damn! Damn! Damn! Every year he forgot. Well, no. He never forgot. He just put the memories away, like old silverware that you didn’t want to tarnish. And every year they came back, sharp and sparkling, and stabbed him in the heart. And today, of all days …
He reached up, and his hand trembled as he grasped a bloom and gently broke the stem. He sniffed at it. He stood for a moment, staring at nothing.’