Nibbled to Death by an Okapi

 I have finally learned what an Okapi is. It is with no small sense of relief that I have added this piece of knowledge to my collection of random facts and dim memories. It is a question that has plagued me for some time, but it was one that only ever raised its head when I was far from any really useful source of information.

I heard the term in the radio show of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in the following quote:

"Meanwhile, the Earthman Arthur Dent, to whom all this can be of only academic interest, as his only brother was long ago nibbled to death by an okapi, is about to be plunged into a real intergalactic war. "

Of course, being a radio show, I had no idea of how to spell Okapi, and had previously thought that it started with an a. This made it impossible for me to look it up in a dictionary (I tried once). Happily my brain recalled this long-standing query today when I was at an internet ready computer, and a few searches later I have the answer. Huzzah!

From the website http://www.wildnet.org/okapi.htm . Neat! So an okapi is a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. Now whenever I hear that bit of the radio show, I can picture with moderate accuracy the image that Douglas Adams had in mind.

I feel much better now.