Right where you are sitting now...

Page 56 is a full-page photograph of Dayton, Ohio's, Victoria Theater. The caption reads:

"Build a better cash register, and the world will beat a path to your door. NCR was the forerunner to the modern transnational corporation, doing business around the clock and around the globe. What else but cash registers could have brought delegations from France, Germany and elsewhere to this 1898 sales conference, held in Dayton's Victoria Theater."

From "General Eccentrics: Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America"

You pass into serious academic hell when your books have two colons in the title.

Page 56 only has four sentences, so I'll use the fourth one:

"Term status does not guarantee employment for the period in question."

what if it doesnt have 56 pages

ah, this thread! Page 56, 5th sentence, classic Grecian free verse:

Her flawless body glistens heavenly,
she fascinates and lives up to her name.

.

The hero, the heroine, the wacky sidekick animals, and the villain/monsters. I'm sure I could name plenty of others but I see you chomping at the bit.

nvm i forgot about the two i use as spacers between the bedposts and the wall, which are volumes 1 and 2 of the 1968 Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia. as luck would have it volume 2 is closer so, page 655:

Malvern Hills, range of hills c.9 mi. long, on the Worcestershire-Hereford border, England.

hehehe ... and on a similar theme (Collins English Dictionary) ...

anger n. 1. a feeling of great annoyance or antagonism as the result of some real or supposed grievance; rage; wrath. ~vb. (tr.) 2. to make angry; enrage. [C12: from Old Norse angr grief; related to Old English enge, Old High German engi narrow, Latin angere to strangle]

that's quite spookily appropriate

Ashita issho ni kaimono o shimasu.

Before can be: a conjunction: think carefully before you choose.

Macmillan Essential Dictionary

Who the hell has a translation of Philodemos sitting on their desk????

“The connectivity is established by assigning the HydroID of a Watershed’s outlet (a HydroJunction feature) to the JunctionID attribute for that Watershed, Similarly, the HydroID of the first downstream HydroJunction is assigned to the NextDownID attribute of the HydroJunction feature.”

"Initially wig-wearing attracted Puritan disapproval. The author of Coma Berenices: or, The Hairy Comet (1674) saw the donning of wigs as a criticism of God's handiwork. The author envisioned an 'Epidemical fashion or disease of wearing Artificial hair' sweeping the cities, and heaped blame on the heads of wearers for their shameful practice of sending 'Women-factors' across the country to pay high prices 'for the hairy excrement' of country women and children."

Emily Cockayne, Hubbub: Filth, Noise & Stench in England. p. 67.

Well, it's actually a collection of many authors. Couple days ago I was comparing two translations of a Sappho fragment, both quite modern/slangy, to see which I wanted to quote to a friend in email. When I saw this thread I couldn't resist, particularly since it turned out to be such a great line!

He counts every grain and shred that goes in.

"The Devil is Dead" by R.A.Lafferty.

Incidentally, when the forums go you can continue this on my blog.

http://globalcausalityviolation.blogspot.com/2009/07/right-where-you-are-sitting-now.html

I don't do Greek at all, sadly, so I have to rely entirely on translations. I do like some Latin poetry, but I actually REALLY prefer modern translations: some of them are wonderfully colourful, and do a beautiful job of rendering what a Horace or a Juvenal or a Martial might have written had they been writing now.

Singers all have the same fault. When asked to perform
for their friends they never will; when no one asks them they never
stop . . .

And yes, it's a wonderful line!

Actually, an even better example, from that same translation of Philodemos:

Hel-lo!
Hi!
What's your name?
What's yours?
Don't come on so.
Ditto.
Got a date?
With whoever digs me.
How about dinner?
If you say so.
OK, what'll it cost?
Nothing down.
Funny girl.
Play me, then pay me.
Alright, what's your number?
Take it down.
And you'll come?
Any time.
Like now?
Let's go.