Random Book Meme II: Electric Boogaloo

Jennifer tagged me with a meme, one I had answered before. But it's a fun one and worth repeating. You have to:

• Grab the nearest book (Penthouse Forum doesn't count unless it's The Best of)
• Turn to page 123
• Look for the fifth sentence
• Post the three sentences that follow that sentence

I was in my office while I did this, and here's what I grabbed:

All such agreements, though, need to be modified to reflect the particular allocation of responsibilities between editor and contributors. Alternatively, in appropriate circumstances, publishers can use simpler forms (such as that in fig. 4.3), closer in style to journal author forms (see fig. 4.2). Finally, it is possible to use work-made-for-hire agreements for all these persons, although that is the least common solution.

That exciting passage is from The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. This illustrates why 1 in 1.7 editors at the Chicago Manual commit suicide, usually by slicing their wrists with razor-sharp ZZZZZZs.

Since this passage is a bit, shall we say, legal, I've taken the liberty of rewriting it in exciting action form. This is from Write Hard 5: Just Write Already, starring Bruce Willis as editor John McClane and the Chicago Manual of Style as Chicago

CHICAGO
Okay, McClane, you have to modify the agreement to reflect the particular allocation of responsibilities between the editor and the contributors.

MCCLANE
Damn it, Chicago, there's no time for that. The royalty agreements are too complicated. The book will be out by the time we get the agreements done.

CHICAGO
What about a simple agreement, like a journal author form.

McCLANE
That's too simple, we'll probably end up in litigation and the whole project will be lost.

CHICAGO
I don't know what else we can do!

McCLANE
Think, goddamnit! You've been through 15 editions, you have to know another way!

CHICAGO
Well...there is another solution. It's not very common....

McCLANE
Chicago, we are running out of time!

CHICAGO
Use work-made-for-hire agreements for all the contributors.

McCLANE
Work-made-for-higher agreements. Chicago, you're a genius!

CHICAGO
And McClane? When you're done, please kill me. Before I bore myself to death.