I've been Tagged!

Bee has tagged me with the following meme:

• Grab the book closest to you.
• Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
• Name the book and the author.
• Tag three people.

She expects me to have some interesting book close to me. Had I been in my room in Nottingham, that would probably be the case. At least, I would have one of "my" books near, and probably a recently read one. Here I am typing in a room at my family home in Buenos Aires, a room used for the computer and the books of all the family, not my own. Moreover, the book-shelf closest to me has some Atlases and map books, and some humour books; I am not sure which book is mathematically closest to me, there are no sentences on a map, and the comic strips I find in pages 123 of nearby humour books have 6 or 7 sentences in the first strip, so the 3 following the fifth one would belong to two separate strips (the punchline of the first one and the beginning of the next one). I prefer to tweak a little the rules of the meme to get a better result.

So I go to page 123 of one of the closest humour books, which is Diez años con Mafalda, and I copy the full first strip instead of the three senteces after the fifth one. It is a dialogue between Mafalda and her friend Susanita. (For the uninitiated, descriptions of the comic and the main characters here; some examples of strips with English translation here; English translation of Volume 1 of the comic here; strongly recommended.)

(first panel) Mafalda: Tener hijitos está muy bien Susanita, pero los tiempos cambian.

(second panel) Mafalda: Además de ser madre, hoy la mujer debe contribuir al progreso, hacer cosas importantes! Susanita: ¡Tenés razón!

(third panel) Susanita: ¡Desde mañana mismo, aprenderé a jugar al bridge!

(fourth panel) Susanita: ¿Qué pasa?...¿Acaso no juegan al bridge las señoras importantes? Mafalda (leaving, with a weary expression, thinks): ¡Dios mío!


My translation of the dialogue:

M: "To have children is all very well, Susanita, but times change. Besides being a mother, today woman must make a contribution to progress, do important things!"
S: You are right! Starting tomorrow, I will learn how to play bridge!
S: What?...Do not all important women play bridge? M (leaving, with a weary expression, thinks): Oh my god.

My suspicious friend, claiming to be the voice of my conscience, told me to play by the rules and copy the exact sentences I was commanded to. If he enjoys strict adherence to meaningless arbitrary rules, I tag him with the meme. And, let's see... My cynical friend and my nonintelligent friend as well. The first one to pre-empt the trademark silly sarcastic comments he is bound to make to this post, and the second one because I am curious to see what is he reading now that he got his degree.