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I've borrowed a copy of The METAFONTbook from my school's library, and I'm wondering why there is a brown paper strip glued to page 125 between the text and the rings. I couldn't help but wonder if there might be a missing fold-out or something; does anyone have any clue what the strip might be for?

I don't see any mention of it in that part of mfbook.tex, either...

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(I removed the mfbook tag, as the intersection of {books} and {metafont} is pretty much only the metafont book.) – Caramdir Feb 3 '11 at 18:32
The millenium edition hardcover doesn't have anything in particular there. By context, it might be a foldout of the Stanford Tree? – Ulrich Schwarz Feb 3 '11 at 18:53
Ulrich, where did you get your copy of the millenium edition? I have been looking for months and have had no luck. Sorry to revive such an old question ... you can email me at jgbailey gmail com. – Justin Bailey Feb 7 '12 at 15:47

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are you sure that it's just an ordinary brown paper strip, and doesn't contain something like a wire or magnetic stripe? a lot of libraries put such markers into books that are to be lent out. these markers are magnetized while the books are on the shelf, and demagnetized when the books are checked out. if a book with a still-magnetized marker is taken out through a sensitized exit gate, a bell or siren will go off, notifying the library staff that someone is trying to get away without checking a book out properly. very embarrassing ...

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Well, I guess this is as good an answer as I'm likely to get (short of asking the librarians); there certainly is no such strip or fold-out in the first-printing hardcover METAFONTbook I purchased by mail-order. (I was a bit annoyed on opening it that it turned out to be first printing, but at least it didn't cost much...) I can only assume they usually hide these in the cover rather than gluing them into page margins, and simply made an unfortunate choice of page when forced to do so by the ring-binding used for the METAFONTbook. – SamB Feb 22 '11 at 0:22

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