From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhb5b!smb
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Title: origin of 42?
Article-I.D.: mhb5b.271
Posted: Wed Apr  6 22:58:03 1983
Received: Thu Apr  7 07:08:38 1983

For all you fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I just found this
passage in Alice in Wonderland [chapter XII]:

	At this moment the King, who had been for some time buisly
	writing in his note-book, called out "Silence!" and read out
	from his book, "Rule Forty-two.  All persons more than a mile
	high to leave the court."

	Everybody looked at Alice.

	"I'm not a mile high," said Alice.

	"You are," said the King.

	"Nearly two miles high," added the Queen.

	"Well, I shan't go, at any rate," said Alice; "besides, that's
	not a regular rule:  you invented it just now."

	"It's the oldest rule in the book," said the King.

	"Then it ought to be Number One," said Alice.