The Mystery of the Meme of Page 123

Updated Saturday morning.  actor212 and the Vagabond Scholar can collect their paychecks.

Updated again Wednesday afternoon.  Steven Hart has finished the job.

Updated Wednesday morning.  The Countess, Cortunix, and Sherry Chandler have checked in. Scroll down.

Kathleen Maher, probably noticing that I hadn't been memed for a while and was feeling lonley and neglected because of it, very kindly and considerately set out to make me feel better by meme-ing me one right between the eyes.

It's the old Page 123 trick.  Goes like this, sez she:

• look up page 123 in the nearest book
• look for the fifth sentence
• then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.

I can do that.  I'm happy to do that.  Because the book I happen to have right at hand is a good one, Rumpole Misbehaves, by John Mortimer.

From Page 123.  Rumpole is talking to his sanctimonious head of chambers, Soapy Sam Ballard, who has done something that came close to getthing Rumpole arrested.  Ballard's interrupted Rumpole at lunch and trying to be friendly says he's glad to see Rumpole's enjoying his meal.   No thanks to you, says Rumpole:

"If you had your way I'd be enjoying it under lock and key."

"It wasn't my doing," Soapy Sam protested, "It was just that everyone else in Chambers felt that I had to take some steps to see that the views of the majority were respected."

"The test of a democracy is the tolerance shown by the majority to minority opinions."

I swear that's what's there on Page 123.  How's that for good liberal blogging karma?

My turn to pay it forward.  Here goes.

1. The Countess, because I'm hoping she has a book of her favorite erotica on her desk.  If she doesn't, she's permitted to cheat. (Done. With sex and space-travel.)

2. Steven Hart, because I'm hoping he has a copy of his book nearby, The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway .  If not, he's permitted to cheat.  (Done, with an excerpt from his books and links that will make you smarter.)

3.  Coturnix, because I'm hoping he has a copy of the latest book in the series he's editing at hand, The Open Laboratory 2007: The Best Science Writing on the Blogs.  If not, see 1 and 2 above. (Done and includes monkey sex.)

4.  Sherry Chandler, known around these parts as Bluegrass Poet, because she is a poet and knows it and will therefore probably treat us to something lyrical, inspiring, and uplifting such as some verse by Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Andrew Marvell, or even herself.  (Done, with lines from T.S. Eliot, who was not sexy but still a great poet.)

5.  The Vagabond Scholar, because he s a gentleman and a...well, you get it, and likely to have some kind of interesting and esoteric work within reach. (Done, in a gentlemanly and scholarly fashion, naturally, but also totally Zen.)

6.  actor212 of Simply Left Behind who I don't think has written a book but he's permitted to start one just for this meme and number the first page 123. (actor212 is done and done in by Cormac McCarthy.)

7.  A tie, which goes to the runner.  I don't know which one is the runner, CathieFromCanada or MikeT, they'll have to work it out between them, but I'm meming them together because they're both new to the blog rolls and this seems like a good way of reminding you to go check out their blogs.

The rest of you are invited to chime in on your own blogs or right here in the comments.  If you've already  done it, drop a link.  Cheating is permitted in case the book closest to you at the moment is Liberal Fascism.

Comments

[Coturnix]

Ha! Just a few hours ago, the OpenLab08 moved aside a few feet and is thus not the book closest to me any more. I think you will like the book that IS closest to me right now - it is racy. We'll see if p.123 is racy.....

[Linkmeister]

As it happens, I was caught by this one. I answered it here.

[Bluegrass Poet]

Mine is here.

Thanks for the nudge toward posting something of my own but beings I've only published two chapbooks, I'd be lucky to get page 12, let alone page 123.

Copious links to my work at my blog, though, if anybody's curious.

[Mike Schilling]

David Halberstam, _The Teammates_:

(In some cases the way was easier precisely because the older siblings argued with their parents for greater freedoms for the younger ones.) For a time, Dominic, five years younger than Vince and three years younger than Joe, was assigned the job of reading and explaining the box scores to his father in the morning. Dominic knew the family had changed in some fundamental way when he was at Galileo High School and his father asked him one morning, "And when are you going to play baseball?"

[Kathleen M.]

Lance, now if I could just get Manny to follow through. Tagging people who write or edit books opens a new passageway to a well-trod meme. I like the democracy sentence the best; it's a sensible response but unexpected nonetheless.

[Coturnix]

OK, Done.

[strandedlad]

"He then moved on to every other major island in the group and said likewise. The I-Kiribati said okeydokey, possibly because Davis immediately banned trade in guns and alcohol, and soon went so far as to banish the more obstreperous missionaries, including Kapu the Lawgiver, two moves that in a very short while returned to the islands a peaceful languidness that they had not seen since the advent of the whalers. The chiefly wars that had riddled life in the northern Gilbert islands gave way top Land Commissions and local magistrates."
--J. Maarten Troost, The Sex Lives of Cannibals

[travy]

this is actually challenging my grammar skillz. the book at hand is don delillo's Americana and page 123 has a typical semicolon loaded run on sentence from hell:

did the bacon represent the insignificance of numbers; the futile quest for infinity; the indivisible nature of god as opposed to the fractional promiscuity of the numbers? was it all a lesson in prime matter and substantial form: were the bits of bacon supposed to be numbers and the fried egg god? brand looked on in fascination...

[Campaspe]

Oh, so you have read it! I knew you would. Last month I found that one gleaming at B&N and snaffled it right up. A new Rumpole has about the same life expectancy at La Maison de Siren as a chocolate truffle.

[The Countess]

You saw my trackback by now Lance, so you saw my answer. Sorry about the hard SF stuff I had to post. I know one of the editors of that book, and he sent it to me. I'm working on a hard SF short story for a contest, and I hope I get published!

Still, I posted a hot sexy excerpt from my novel for you, since that's clear what you've asked for. ;)

[Steven Hart]

How's this?

[Batocchio]

D'oh! Apologies for my tardiness. I'm not sure about the gentleman thing, nor even the "scholar"... but here's my entry. I'm behind on my blog reading; I'll try to catch up...

If you're bored, there was an earlier Band Meme going around that was pretty fun.

[actor212]

Sorry for being late to the party, Laance. My surgical team was rather in shambles this week...I must simply hire more single-payer insurance physicians.

OK, my meme-theme is here.