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Day 428: The Nearest Book Meme

Rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

***

“There were multifamily houses that resembled hotels.  And a small hotel was much like a single-family house.  These buildings and many others that are under the deep basalt were preserved by these sketches, made in 1973, for the most part from memory, by Gudjon Olafsson, an office manager in one of the fish factories.  In the early seventeenth century, a pastor named Jon Thorsteinsson lived for fiteen years at Kirkjubaer, and after he died a stone monument was erected there in his memory; he was killed by pirates from Morocco who terrorized the island in 1627 and have come down in local history as ‘the Turks.'”

— John McPhee, The Control Of Nature, FSG, 1989.

(HT, the GB)

2 comments… add one
  • Dr. A October 31, 2006, 5:52 PM

    Hi Maitri!

    Nice to see you again! I love this! Since I’m at work , my nearest book is Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease 7th ed. I’m sending it to you as I don’t have a blog!

    The fifth sentence on page 123 starts:

    Hemorrhage may be external or may be enclosed within a tissue; accumulation of blood within tissue is referred to as a hematoma. Hematomas may be relatively insignificant (a bruise) or may be sufficiently large as to be fatal (e.g., a massive retroperitoneal hematoma resulting from rupture of a dissecting aortic aneurysm; Chapter 11).
    Minute 1- to 2-mm hemorrhages into skin, mucous membranes, or serosal surfaces are denoted as petechiae (Figure 4-5A) and are typically associated with locatlly increased intrascular pressure, low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia), defective platelet function (as in uremia), or clotting factor deficits.
    Slightly larger (>3mm hemorrahges are called purpura. These may be associated with many of the same disorders that cause petechiae and may also occur secondary to trauma, vascular inflammation (vasculitis), or increased vascular fragility (e.g., in amyloidosis).

    What fun! I am a nerd!
    Happy Halloween!

  • liprap January 31, 2007, 6:22 PM

    Uhhh, I just saw this meme at Nix Bits, tried it out, and I’m gonna tell you what I told him: Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” has NOTHING on page 123.

    What the heck are the chances?!!?!?

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