Someone actually tagged me on a meme, at least it’s a book based one :)
Rules
- Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pgs.)
- Open the book to page 123
- Find the fifth sentence
- Post the next three sentences
- Tag five people
Others have participated and I am destined to follow the format of inn0vate, whose nearest book to hand was a dictionary. Thus we have an excerpt for your reading pleasure from:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary 6th Ed (OUP, 1976) ISBN 0198611218
brigadier n. ~(-general), officer commanding a brigade, (titular rank granted to) staff officer of similar standing, above, colonel and below major-general. [F; see prec., -IER]
brigalow (-o) n. (Austral.) One of various acacia trees. [Aboriginal]
brigand n. Member of robber band living by pillage and ransom; hence or cogn. ~AGE (3), ~ISM (2), ~RY (5), ns., ~ISH a. [ME f. OF, f. It. brigante (brigare; see BRIGADE)]
This in turn reminds me of a certain conundrum, I have the recently published 6th Ed of the Shorter Oxford, however it dwells in a lovely spot on my bookcase at home in the loungeroom. It’s not at work where I’m most likely to use a dictionary on a day to day basis. On the other hand I don’t want to leave it work when I go home. The full OED is available on CD, however I gather it requires special software to run. What would be really cool is a version that runs on Linux, then I could install it on my eee. That would be way cool; the full OED to take with me everywhere.
snail 
Snail, br- on page 123?? You sure you were looking in the Concise OED? :)
Hi Con, not sure if there’s specifically a concise OED or not, but I was referring to The Concise Oxford Dictionary (no English in the title). It’s the 1976 edition and has a total of 1,368 pages. Perhaps you were thinking of the Shorter OED ? Alas I don’t have that at work.