A meme at last

I've been tagged, or so it seems. If I seem all flustered, it's because this is my first time. The tag comes from Emaw at Three O'Clock in the Morning who got caught up in a recent meme and like that in 70s shampoo commercial, he was tagged by Joel, who was tagged by John B., and so on and so on.

Here's how this one works:

• Find the nearest book
• Name the title and author
• Turn to p. 123
• Post sentences 6-8
• Tag 3 more people

I was at work when I was tagged and as a result my contribution comes from one the migraine inducing egghead doorstops that public radio is famous for (779 pages w/ index). Still, if you can parse the academic syntax there's something vaguely familiar going on.

Here I go:
"Mellon: An American Life" by David Cannadine

In the brief period from 1898 to 1900, before Roosevelt entered the White House, America extracted itself from the great depression and suddenly surged forward in ways that amazed and intimidated observers, assuming the position of the word’s most powerful economy -- a position which, a hundred years later, it still occupies. One indication of this energy and expansiveness was a sudden mania for mergers and consolidations. So many vast new enterprises were created, and so great was their power and reach, that some Americans began to worry that these trusts (as they were all called) and their owners were becoming so rich, powerful, and monopolistic as to be above beyond, and outside the law.

Who's next:
Davis Jones
Fred Wickham
Scooter J