Don,

I was thinking about this in class today (I'm teaching SQL Admin this week) and I think that I have a pretty good solution. Try this:

(Using the Northwind sample database)

SELECT productname FROM
(SELECT TOP 5 productname
FROM products
WHERE productname < 'konbu'
ORDER BY productname DESC) AS a
UNION
SELECT productname FROM
(SELECT TOP 6 productname
FROM products
WHERE productname >= 'konbu'
ORDER BY productname ) AS b
ORDER BY productname

I'm using the SELECT TOP clause to limit the number of rows selected. The funny syntax is because a union can only have one ORDER BY clause. Since TOP has to have an ORDER BY, I have to use SQL Server's derived table feature.

-Mike