(Replying to all this time, oops)
>From the above:
$ perl -ne'rand++$n<1?$s=$_:1;END{print$s}' <alpha.html
No need to increment a counter like $n, just use $. which gives the
line number 1 indexed.
$ perl -ne'rand$.<1?$a=$_:1;END{print$a}' <alpha.html
Also replaced $s with $a so it runs safe under 'warnings'. ;) Two more
characters saved.