I dial a primrose, they give me a pro

[sovay]

A meme! Via matociquala:

Pick up the nearest book to you. Turn to page 45. The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.

"I telephoned Ozanne's secretary and said that I needed to see the colonel on an urgent matter, that it would take about an hour and that I would be grateful if Colonel Pollock could be present."

—Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941–1945 (1998)

(The follow-up sentence: "I also requested the use of a blackboard.")

Comments

[zdenka]

The nearest book to me was The Tragedies of Shakespeare, which was still on my desk from having written Macbeth fic during Yuletide. So I get:

My heart beats thicker than a fevrous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encountering
The eye of majesty.

From Troilus and Cressida. Er. That . . . could be good or bad, depending?

[sovay]

That . . . could be good or bad, depending?

Divorced from context, it's very promising!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Nearest book to hand is Kelly Link's.

NO.

[sovay]

NO.

. . . Good call.

(Nice icon.)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones. The Spellcoats:

"We had gone that fast."

Nine

[sovay]

"We had gone that fast."

Well, at least it was memorable.

Is madness defined as trying the same thing again hoping for a different result?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I've done this three times today.

Once I got:
"Bhí Hazlett ag treabhadh leis trí na hainmneacha agus gan a dhath ar a shon aige, nuair a tharla rud a chuir iontas agus lúcháir air san am chéanna." (Déirdre Ní Grianna; Eachtra (2005))

which I'd render (very roughly; I'm still not satisfied with it) as:
"Hazlett was ploughing through the names and without a single thing to show for it, when something happened that astonished and delighted him all at once."

Hazeltt's a nasty piece of work, so I decided to try again:
"When the figure-eight and stevedore stopper knots prove inadequate, enabling the rope in which they are tied to pull free, then use this chunky alternative." (John Shaw; The Directory of Knots (2003))

Not much improvement, so now I've got:
"Coincidentally, France gets a mention in that song as a centre of medical excellence:" (Con Ó Drisceoil; The Spoons Murder and other mysteries (2006))

I think I'd best give up now. Good night and happy meming!

[sovay]

"Hazlett was ploughing through the names and without a single thing to show for it, when something happened that astonished and delighted him all at once."

That could in fact be the first sentence of a porn scene. No plot: straight to the action.

"When the figure-eight and stevedore stopper knots prove inadequate, enabling the rope in which they are tied to pull free, then use this chunky alternative."

Things are looking up!

"Coincidentally, France gets a mention in that song as a centre of medical excellence"

Oh, that's ominous. I'm sorry.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

"I also requested the use of a blackboard."

I'll be in my bunk imagining why...

[sovay]

I'll be in my bunk imagining why...

It's good to know the SOE lived up to their creative reputations.

not as outlandish as yours with the blackboard

[awhyzip.livejournal.com]

I thought this was unlikely to yield many plausible sentences. Then I turned to my nearest book, Ghosts on the Red Line (Peter David Shapiro) and the first full sentence on pg 45 read:

"I love you too!" she exclaimed.

Yay! A promising sentence ...albeit directed to a springer spaniel.

[sovay]

Yay! A promising sentence ...albeit directed to a springer spaniel.

Context begone!

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

"A clear liquid matrix applied directly to her eyes enabled her to trigger functions inside the holotank with a mere glance."

-- David Mack, Star Trek: Destiny, Book I: Gods of Night

[sovay]

"A clear liquid matrix applied directly to her eyes enabled her to trigger functions inside the holotank with a mere glance."

. . . That could go either way.

Borderland - a Journey through the History of Ukraine

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Instead the country descends into chaos: the book's notorious final sentence reads "And hatred swelled in people's hearts and poisoned the blood of brothers".

[sovay]

Instead the country descends into chaos: the book's notorious final sentence reads "And hatred swelled in people's hearts and poisoned the blood of brothers".

Well, you win for Bad Romance.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

"Her furs are a reference to the reversal of good into bad mother - a good mother's fur coat might be cuddled by a child, the Queen's furs are a narcissistic glorification of her cold beauty." (Margaret and Michael Rustin, Narratives of Love and Loss.)

Luckily, I'm just on my way to see my therapist...

[sovay]

Luckily, I'm just on my way to see my therapist...

Oh, good—it was either that or Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

(The White Witch?)

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

Ezra Fleischer, Hebrew Poetry in Spain and Communities under its Influence.

The sentence begins on p. 44, and won't make sense without going back to the beginning of the paragraph.

I'll translate:

"We need to pause a moment to consider the epithet 'The Little' which Menaḥem uses in his [acrostic] signatures in these poems. This is the earliest appearance of this epithets in poetic signatures in Spain. As we know, it became very typical a bit later; Yosef ibn Abitur uses it dozens of times in his poems, and [p. 45] Solomon ibn Gabirol used it so much in his signatures that later generations called him 'Solomon the Little'. The earliest occurrence of the epithet in poetic signatures is in early tenth-century Italy, and the earliest poet to use it, as far as we know, is Amittai ben Shefatya, of Southern Italy. The fact that it appears in Menaḥem's signature seems to show that there is Italian influence on Spanish poetry at this time, and influence which we have already noted elsewhere regarding its traces in the work of Yosef ibn Abitur."

I just hope that "the Little" (Ha-qaṭan) doesn't mean "the impotent"....

[sovay]

The fact that it appears in Menaḥem's signature seems to show that there is Italian influence on Spanish poetry at this time, and influence which we have already noted elsewhere regarding its traces in the work of Yosef ibn Abitur.

So you'll have an erudite sex life. Worse things have happened to people.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I tried this! The first book was a dictionary, with no page numbers. The second was in Hebrew.

Why yes, I am in the Lit & Phil. I'll wait till I get home.

[sovay]

The first book was a dictionary, with no page numbers. The second was in Hebrew.

That's rather interesting all on its own . . .

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

"he was listening to desert bands" (from a poetry collection by Francesca Lia Block)

Seems... relatively promising? I guess?

[sovay]

Seems... relatively promising? I guess?

You'll have good music!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Also, as regards yours, "that it would take an hour and that I would be grateful if Colonel Pollock could be present" does seem to promise a VERY entertaining 2012.

[sovay]

Also, as regards yours, "that it would take an hour and that I would be grateful if Colonel Pollock could be present" does seem to promise a VERY entertaining 2012.

I thought I'd get an amusing non sequitur at best. Thank you, Leo Marks. You're the perverse fellow I always knew you were.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

"Review the conference program carefully in advance."

Barbara Gastel, Health Writer's Handbook

OR

"Bioequivalence: The degree to which clinically important outcomes of treatment by a new preparation resemble those of a previously established preparation."

BS Everitt, The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics

Take-home message: I have extremely boring books at my desk.

[sovay]

"Review the conference program carefully in advance."

That sounds hazardous.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

An hour. In wartime! My my my my my.

Nothing wrong with it, I'd say. I should do this, but all I have on my desk are recidivism-reduction strategy books, and I'm not at all against recidivism in 2012 as applies to my wife's possible future plans to maul me in private.

[sovay]

In wartime! My my my my my.

An hour with a blackboard.

I should do this, but all I have on my desk are recidivism-reduction strategy books, and I'm not at all against recidivism in 2012 as applies to my wife's possible future plans to maul me in private.

That is fair.

Wait till you get home? (Oh, God, it'll be something about gingham.)

[larryhammer]

I liked my result enough when I did it in matociquala's journal, I'm not going to mess with it by trying again.

---L.

[sovay]

Two triangular sheets of paper are folded separately and joined to form the lily.

Yeah: I think rushthatspeaks translated that from the Latin a few years ago.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I've done this one on readingthedark's entry, so have reached for a new book: Robert Aickman's Wine-Dark Sea. I get:

"The sound rose and fell, though something less than rhythmically, but never quite ceased; and every now and then a smell rose from the pit, if pit there was, a smell akin to the noise, in that it might have been of long-rotted tideless seaweed or, alternatively,of vaguer and terrestrial decomposition."

Well thanks, Robert.

[sovay]

"The sound rose and fell, though something less than rhythmically, but never quite ceased; and every now and then a smell rose from the pit, if pit there was, a smell akin to the noise, in that it might have been of long-rotted tideless seaweed or, alternatively, of vaguer and terrestrial decomposition."

. . . Oh, dear.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

"Guilds often require dues, oaths of loyalty, or other requirements of their members."

- D&D 3.0 DMG, page 45.

[sovay]

other requirements

Say no more, say no more. Know what I mean?

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Page 45 was a picture, however, page 44 starts "Decorative knobs can transform any door or drawer." - Papercrafts & Paper Fun (a book I was gifted with by a coworker who was impressed with all the origami modules lying around on my desk)

[sovay]

"Decorative knobs can transform any door or drawer."

. . . I bet they can.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I love this. Will you be alert to any Colonel you meet? Or only those carrying blackboards?

My sentence: "Someone was going to have to do something about it, because he couldn't do anything about it himself, and he couldn't see who else there was, apart from the woman under the coat."

[sovay]

Or only those carrying blackboards?

The ability to diagram code-groups isn't a must, but it is something of an incentive.

"Someone was going to have to do something about it, because he couldn't do anything about it himself, and he couldn't see who else there was, apart from the woman under the coat."

That's reasonably risque. What's it from?

[gwynnega]

"In a sketchbook he had bought from Au Rat Peint, an artists' supply shop in the rue Soufflot, is a series of pencil drawings, washed in with color."

-- Paul O'Keeffe, Gaudier-Brzeska: An Absolute Case of Genius

Hmm...

[sovay]

"In a sketchbook he had bought from Au Rat Peint, an artists' supply shop in the rue Soufflot, is a series of pencil drawings, washed in with color."

Clearly, interesting drawings.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I think this is by far the best one I've seen so far. :D

[sovay]

I think this is by far the best one I've seen so far.

Thank you. I was pleased with it!

[lesser-celery.livejournal.com]

From Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night:

"That's right. It leaves one thing wide open, too."

[sovay]

"That's right. It leaves one thing wide open, too."

That didn't even bother with subtext.

[selidor]

I'm cheating by skipping to the first sentence that isn't a formula.
The Determination of Orbits, A. D. Dubyago (translated from the Russian by a whole list of authors). Ch. 2. The Problem of Two Bodies.
"We shall not dwell more in detail on hyperbolic motion. Equations (#) through (#) give all that is necessary for calculations."

[sovay]

The Problem of Two Bodies.

That's pretty perfect all on its own.

I have a terrible desire to request a love poem of orbital equations.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

"The chronology began one Sunday morning in December 1937 when he noticed an item in a forthcoming sale catalog that awoke him from a comfortable lethargy: Prozess gegen Juden von Trent 1476-1478, manuscript written in gothic letters of 614 pp.with a border on folio 2 verso, in gold and colours, with the coat-of-arms of the Duke of Wurrtemberg, for whom this account was written, old vellum folio circa 1478."

fromA Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes

Library school reading and sex do not go very well together, I guess.

[sovay]

"The chronology began one Sunday morning in December 1937 when he noticed an item in a forthcoming sale catalog that awoke him from a comfortable lethargy: Prozess gegen Juden von Trent 1476-1478, manuscript written in gothic letters of 614 pp.with a border on folio 2 verso, in gold and colours, with the coat-of-arms of the Duke of Wurrtemberg, for whom this account was written, old vellum folio circa 1478."

I'm sure it's a fetish for somebody . . .