Thursday April 24, 2008 // By Sarah
Memes with Clementine
I’ve been tagged by Levi for a literature-related meme, so here goes.
The task at hand:
- Pick up the nearest book.
- Open to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the next three sentences.
- Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
So, when I read Levi’s post this morning, the closest book to me was Clémentine in the Kitchen, a book best described in its own terms:
This is the gastronomic diary of the Becks, an American family in France, and of their most cherished possession, Clémentine, the faithful red-cheeked cuisinière who presided majestically over the Beck kitchen for close to a decade.
The Becks, described as “well-upholstered Anglo Saxons” loved their “alert, good-natured little Burgundian woman” much as we well-upholstered Hungarian Jews love our drowsy, temperamental fat tabby cat. Sandy, on giving the book to me as a Hanukkah present, suggested perhaps we might write some follow up volumes, like “Clementine in the Bathroom Crying for Tap Water” or “Clementine in the Blanket She Thinks is Her Mother."
So, page 123 is mostly a description of how to make various dishes with leftover ham. I’m going to cheat. Page 125 is way better, dealing as it does with the depredations of Clementine’s culinary life in the United States, after the family fled war-torn Europe.
Why didn’t Mr. Cletus R. Wilcox, the town butcher, have an occasional rabbit, goose, pheasant, or guinea hen in season? Clémentine accepted Madame Beck’s explanation of these essential shortages with sympathy, but no amount of elucidation could clear up the most baffling mystery of all – why was there no veal? Weeks would go by and the nearest approach to veal in her kitchen would be the picture of a calf’s head on the family box of gelatine.
My friends, I ask you, what good is a Beouf à la Mode without a calf’s foot? By which I mean, what is on page 123 of the book nearest you? But, not many of my friends have blogs. Perhaps Jon would take the challenge? Or, maybe some of these people will want to leave their three sentences in the comments?
- my mom
- my dad
- Catherine
- Julie
- Any member of Sandy’s family…Amy? Lilli? Peter?
Although Herge’ could communicate so wonderfully with children in his work, and his own attitude to life could have a childish innocence and enthusiasm, he was not, according to all accounts, particularly comfortable in the presence of children and was not a model uncle as far as Georges and Denise were concerned.
It was pages taken from The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko and recycled Quick and Flupke cartoons which filled the gap left by Tintin during Herge’s absence without leave. Herge’‘s plea of exhaustion did little to appease the demands of Leblanc of Georges Dargaud, Tintin magazine’s publisher in France, who found it understandably absurd to publish it without Tintin.
– From “The Adventures of Herge – Creator of Tintin” (a book with 127 pages).Aw, this makes me remember that strange Tintin exhibit we went to in Montreal, with lifesize recreations of scenes from the books.
Ok, this is going to be fun…
“There can be little doubt that racial and ethnic minorities perpetrate a disproportionate share of street crime, and that they are in turn disproportionately represented in the ranks of the criminally victimized, both as victims of crime and as victims of the criminal justice system. The extent of their crime perpetration and criminal victimization varies with the crime-specific category; that is, blacks and other minorities are likely perpetrators and victims of certain crimes such as criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and assault as well as household burglaries and larcenies. The are not, however, likely perpetrators of sedition, espionage or white-collar crime nor victims of white-collar crimes.”
— from Blacks and the Criminal Justice System edited by Daniel Georges-Abeyie. This is the book that was closest to me when I read Sarah’s blog entry. Believe it or not, I cheated. This quote is from p. 125 — p. 123 is a graph of crime rates.
OK, I’ll take the challenge.
“Beginning at dark on the night of July 13, Lee began moving his infantry back into the safety of Virginia. When the Union advance began the next morning, all but two divisions of A.P. Hill’s Third Corps had made it across the river. A sharp fight ensued between the rebel rearguard and the federal cavalry. Confederate Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew, one of the division commanders in Pickett’s Charge, was wounded mortally, and about one thousand rebels were killed, wounded, or captured.
from Pale Horse at Plum Run: The First Minnesota at Gettysburg by Brian Leehan
(Just in case you were wondering, a few sentences later comes the kicker: “The Gettysburg Campaign was over.” (Not for me and Syd, though. For us, it’s just begun!)