I was reading a book credited to a Ph.D physicist friend (who after his degree, became involved with the Ruby on Rails programming community, and notably promotes an idea I had when younger about how the circular constant we use should be defined as
2 * pi). The book was simply titled "PHYSICS".
I realized this was a library book, that I had checked it out. I wondered what the due date was, and so I flipped to the back of the book. The inner side of the back cover was actually a kind of flap or pocket, and it contained two very old school cards with names and dates on it.
The last due date suggested the book didn't have to be returned until september 22nd. My awareness of the current date was such that I knew it was not September yet.
Note
I thought to myself that especially given I'd probably forget I had it and there would be late fees, I shouldn't be a cheapskate and check it out of the library, but buy a copy from my friend.
I went to read the first chapter, but noticed there was a lot of preface. Holding my thumb at the point of where the first chapter began, I tried to skim a bit back to see what the preface was about.
The preface talked about the inception of the book, and my friend was describing that the original intent was to have a co-writer. The two of them had gotten together and hammered out the basic premises and organization of the book. But the co-writer wound up not having any time for the project, so he had to write it all himself.
A list of people were thanked in the book, including me, where I was referred to as "The Great Mutator".
After the author's preface, there seemed to be a slew of opening remarks by other physicists as forewords. One simply said "This book is above average, but pretty standard". My friend the author injected a sidenote that while it might not sound very complimentary, he took it as high praise coming from that person.
I turned to a page which seemed to be a problem statement in the spirit of "Two trains leave stations at different times, when do they cross" math problems. However, this problem was phrased as "A walnut and a thunderstorm are traveling two different directions in time..."