5 perlepigraphs - list of Perl release epigraphs
9 Many Perl release announcements included an I<epigraph>, a short excerpt
10 from a literary or other creative work, chosen by the pumpking or release
11 manager. This file assembles the known list of epigraph for posterity,
12 and also links to the release announcements in mailing list archives.
14 I<Note>: these have also been referred to as I<epigrams>, but the
15 definition of I<epigraph> is closer to the way they have been used.
16 Consult your favorite dictionary for details.
20 =head2 v5.23.5 - utastro!nather (Ed Nather), "The Story of Mel", in net.jokes, May 21, 1983.
22 L<Announced on 2015-11-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/11/msg232758.html>
24 After Mel had left the company for greener pa$ture$, the Big Boss asked
25 me to look at the code and see if I could find the test and reverse it.
26 Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed to look. Tracking Mel's code was a real
29 I have often felt that programming is an art form, whose real value can
30 only be appreciated by another versed in the same arcane art; there are
31 lovely gems and brilliant coups hidden from human view and admiration,
32 sometimes forever, by the very nature of the process. You can learn a
33 lot about an individual just by reading through his code, even in
34 hexadecimal. Mel was, I think, an unsung genius.
36 Perhaps my greatest shock came when I found an innocent loop that had
37 no test in it. No test. None. Common sense said it had to be a closed
38 loop, where the program would circle, forever, endlessly. Program
39 control passed right through it, however, and safely out the other side.
40 It took me two weeks to figure it out.
42 The RPC-4000 computer had a really modern facility called an index
43 register. It allowed the programmer to write a program loop that used
44 an indexed instruction inside; each time through, the number in the
45 index register was added to the address of that instruction, so it
46 would refer to the next datum in a series. He had only to increment
47 the index register each time through. Mel never used it.
49 Instead, he would pull the instruction into a machine register, add one
50 to its address, and store it back. He would then execute the modified
51 instruction right from the register. The loop was written so this
52 additional execution time was taken into account -- just as this
53 instruction finished, the next one was right under the drum's read head,
54 ready to go. But the loop had no test in it.
56 The vital clue came when I noticed the index register bit, the bit that
57 lay between the address and the operation code in the instruction word,
58 was turned on -- yet Mel never used the index register, leaving it zero
59 all the time. When the light went on it nearly blinded me.
61 He had located the data he was working on near the top of memory -- the
62 largest locations the instructions could address -- so, after the last
63 datum was handled, incrementing the instruction address would make it
64 overflow. The carry would add one to the operation code, changing it to
65 the next one in the instruction set: a jump instruction. Sure enough,
66 the next program instruction was in address location zero, and the
67 program went happily on its way.
69 =head2 v5.23.4 - Denis Diderot, trans. David Coward, "Jacques the Fatalist"
71 L<Announced on 2015-10-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/10/msg232040.html>
73 Well, everybody's got a dog. The prime minister is the king's dog. The
74 first secretary is the prime minister's dog. A wife is a husband's dog,
75 or a husband is a wife's dog. Favourite is Madame So-and-so's dog and
76 Thibaut is the man on the corner's dog. When my Master tells me to talk
77 when I'd prefer not to, which to be honest doesn't happen very often,
78 when he tells me to shut up when I feel like talking, which I find very
79 difficult, when he asks me to tell the story of my love-life and then
80 keeps interrupting, what am I if not his dog? Weak men are the dogs of
83 =head2 v5.23.3 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Deacon’s Masterpiece or The Wonderful 'One-Hoss Shay': A Logical Story"
85 L<Announced on 2015-09-20 by Peter Martini|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/09/msg231173.html>
87 Little of of all we value here
88 Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year
89 Without both feeling and looking queer.
90 In fact, there’s nothing that keeps its youth,
91 So far as I know, but a tree and truth.
92 (This is a moral that runs at large;
93 Take it. — You’re welcome. — No extra charge.)
95 =head2 v5.23.2 - Blind Guardian, "Skalds and Shadows"
97 L<Announced on 2015-08-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/08/msg230298.html>
99 Would you believe in a night like this
100 A night like this, when visions come true
101 Would you believe in a tale like this
102 A lay of bliss, praise in the old lore
103 Come to the blazing fire and
105 See me in the shadows
106 See me in the shadows
110 This night turns into myth
113 The world we live in is another skald's
117 Do you believe there is sense in it
119 They´re one in my rhymes
120 Nobody knows the meaning behind
122 Well nobody else but the Norns can
123 See through the blazing fires of time and
124 All things will proceed as the
125 Child of the hallowed
126 Will speak to you now
128 See me in the shadows
129 See me in the shadows
130 Songs I will sing of tribes and kings
131 The carrion bird and the hall of the slain
134 The world we live in is another skald´s
138 Do not fear for my reason
139 There's nothing to hide
140 How bitter your treason
142 Remember the runes and remember the light
143 All I ever want is to be at your side
144 We'll gladden the raven now I will
145 Run through the blazing fires
147 Cause things shall proceed as foreseen
149 =head2 v5.23.1 - Elizabeth Haydon, "The Assassin King"
151 L<Announced on 2015-07-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/07/msg229413.html>
153 I was born beneath this willow,
154 Where my sire the earth did farm
155 Had the green grass as my pillow
156 The east wind as a blanket warm.
158 But away! away! called the wind from the west
159 And in answer I did run
160 Seeking glory and adventure
161 Promised by the rising sun.
163 I found love beneath this willow,
164 As true a love as life could hold,
165 Pledged my heart and swore my fealty
166 Sealed with a kiss and a band of gold.
168 But to arms! to arms! called the wind from the west
169 In faithful answer I did run
170 Marching forth for king and country
171 In battles 'neath the midday sun.
173 Oft I dreamt of that fair willow
174 As the seven seas I plied
175 And the girl who I left waiting
176 Longing to be at her side.
178 But about! about! called the wind from the west
179 As once again my ship did run
180 Down the coast, about the wide world
181 Flying sails in the setting sun.
183 Now I lie beneath the willow
184 Now at last no more to roam,
185 My bride and earth so tightly hold me
186 In their arms I'm finally home.
188 While away! away! calls the wind from the west
189 Beyond the grave my spirit, free
190 Will chase the sun into the morning
191 Beyond the sky, beyond the sea.
193 =head2 v5.23.0 - Bob Dylan, Maggie's Farm
195 L<Announced on 2015-06-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/06/msg228807.html>
197 I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
198 I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
201 But everybody wants you
203 They sing while you slave and I just get bored
204 I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
206 =head2 v5.22.1-RC3 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "Stormy Morning" (No. 18 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
208 L<Announced on 2015-12-02 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/12/msg233032.html>
210 How the storm tore rents
211 In heavens gray attired!
212 The rags of cloud are flying
213 Around, of combat tired.
215 And flames of fire lambent,
216 Fly between them and part,
217 That 's what I call a morning,
218 A morning after my heart!
220 My heart sees in the heavens
221 Its own picture unspoilt--
222 It's nothing but the Winter,
223 The Winter, cold and wild.
225 =head2 v5.22.1-RC2 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "The Old Head" (No. 14 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
227 L<Announced on 2015-11-15 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/11/msg232632.html>
229 The hoary frost has a white sheen
230 Strewn all over my hair,
231 So I thought I was an old man
232 And thought life dealt me fair.
234 Yet soon was thawed my old white mane,
235 And I have my black hair again.
236 How I abhor my young fair years,
237 How long to wait for death and biers?
239 From setting sun to morning's hue
240 Many a head turns white.
241 Who'll credit it? My hair did not
242 In all this lifelong plight!
244 =head2 v5.22.1-RC1 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "Will-o'-the Wisp" (No. 9 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
246 L<Announced on 2015-10-31 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/10/msg232321.html>
248 In the deepest rocky crevice
249 A will-o'-the wisp lured me;
250 How I could find my way from here,
251 For me it's easy memory!
253 For I am used to straying ways,
254 Every path to th'end a way,
255 All our joys and all our suffering,--
256 To a will-o'-the wisp it 's all play!
258 Through the dried-up bed of torrents
259 I quite calmly downward stroll;
260 Every stream its sea will enter,
261 Every suffering finds its goal!
263 =head2 v5.22.0 - Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
265 L<Announced on 2015-06-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/06/msg228300.html>
267 “You are the advocate of the dead.”
269 The old man nodded. “I am. People talk about being fair to this one and
270 that one, but nobody I ever heard talks about doing right by them. We
271 take everything they had, which is all right. And spit, most often, on
272 their opinions, which I suppose is all right too. But we ought to
273 remember now and then how much of what we have we got from them. I
274 figure while I’m still here I ought to put a word in for them.”
276 =head2 v5.22.0-RC2 - T.S. Eliot, unpublished work
278 L<Announced on 2015-05-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/05/msg228142.html>
280 And when thyself with silver foot shall pass
281 Among the theories scattered on the grass
282 Take up my good intentions with the rest
284 =head2 v5.22.0-RC1 - Gene Wolfe, Citadel of the Autarch
286 L<Announced on 2015-05-19 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/05/msg228059.html>
288 There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by
289 its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.
291 =head2 v5.21.11 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)"
293 L<Announced on 2015-04-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/04/msg227472.html>
295 They shall pass and their places be taken,
296 The gods and the priests that are pure.
297 They shall pass, and shalt thou not be shaken?
298 They shall perish, and shalt thou endure?
299 Death laughs, breathing close and relentless
300 In the nostrils and eyelids of lust,
301 With a pinch in his fingers of scentless
304 But the worm shall revive thee with kisses;
305 Thou shalt change and transmute as a god,
306 As the rod to a serpent that hisses,
307 As the serpent again to a rod.
308 Thy life shall not cease though thou doff it;
309 Thou shalt live until evil be slain,
310 And good shall die first, said thy prophet,
313 =head2 v5.21.10 - Aldous Huxley, "The Devils of Loudun"
315 L<Announced on 2015-03-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/03/msg226847.html>
317 The fire burned on, the good fathers continued to sprinkle and intone.
318 Suddenly a flock of pigeons came swooping down from the church and
319 started to wheel around the roaring column of flame and smoke. The
320 crowd shouted, the archers waved their halberds at the birds, Lactance
321 and Tranquille splashed them on the wing with holy water. In vain. The
322 pigeons were not to be driven away. Round and round they flew, diving
323 through the smoke, singeing their feathers in the flames. Both parties
324 claimed a miracle. For the parson's enemies the birds, quite obviously,
325 were a troop of devils, come to fetch away his soul. For his friends,
326 they were emblems of the Holy Ghost and living proof of his innocence.
327 It never seems to have occurred to anyone that they were just pigeons,
328 obeying the laws of their own, their blessedly other-than-human nature.
330 =head2 v5.21.9 - Emily Dickinson, "There is Another Sky"
332 L<Announced on 2015-02-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/02/msg226002.html>
334 There is another sky,
335 Ever serene and fair,
336 And there is another sunshine,
337 Though it be darkness there;
338 Never mind faded forests, Austin,
339 Never mind silent fields -
340 Here is a little forest,
341 Whose leaf is ever green;
342 Here is a brighter garden,
343 Where not a frost has been;
344 In its unfading flowers
345 I hear the bright bee hum:
349 =head2 v5.21.8 - Bill Watterson, "Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink': A Calvin and Hobbes Collection"
351 L<Announced on 2015-01-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/01/msg224869.html>
353 Calvin: OK Hobbes, press the button and duplicate me.
354 Hobbes: Are you sure this is such a good idea?
355 Calvin: Brother! You doubting Thomases get in the way of more scientific advances with your stupid ethical questions! This is a *BRILLIANT* idea! Hit the button, will ya?
356 Hobbes: I'd hate to be accused of inhibiting scientific progress... Here you go.
358 Hobbes: Scientific progress goes "BOINK"?
359 Calvin?: It worked! It worked! I'm a genius!
360 Cavlin??: No you're not, you liar! *I* invented this!
362 =head2 v5.21.7 - Robert Heinlein, "The Number of the Beast"
364 L<Announced on 2014-12-20 by Max Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/12/msg223774.html>
366 "Zebadiah, Hilda and I salvaged and put everything into the basket.
367 Hilda started to put it into our wardrobe-and it was heavy. So
368 we looked. Packed as tight as when we left Oz. Six bananas-and
369 everything else. Cross my heart. No, go look."
370 "Hmmm- Jake, can you write equations for a picnic basket that
371 refills itself? Will it go on doing so?"
372 "Zeb, equations can be written to describe anything. The description
373 would be simpler for a basket that replenishes itself indefinitely
374 than for one that does it once and stops-I would have to describe
377 =head2 v5.21.6 - Jeff Noon, "Vurt"
379 L<Announced on 2014-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/11/msg222448.html>
383 EXCHANGE MECHANISMS. Sometimes we lose precious
384 things. Friends and colleagues, fellow travellers in the
385 Vurt, sometimes we lose them; even lovers we sometimes
386 lose. And get bad things in exchange: aliens, objects,
387 snakes, and sometimes even death. Things we don't want.
388 This is part of the deal, part of the game deal;
389 all things, in all worlds, must be kept in balance.
390 Kittlings often ask, who decides on the swappings? Now then,
391 some say it's all accidental; that some poor Vurt thing
392 finds himself too close to a door, at too critical a time,
393 just when something real is being lost. Whoosh! Swap time!
394 Others say that some kind of overseer is working the
395 MECHANISMS OF EXCHANGE, deciding the fate of innocents.
396 The Cat can only tease at this, because of the big secrets
397 involved, and because of the levels between you, the reader,
398 and me, the Game Cat. Hey, listen; I've struggled to get
399 where I am today; why should I give you the easy route?
400 Get working, kittlings! Reach up higher. Work the Vurt.
402 =head2 v5.21.5 - Friso Wiegersma (text), Jean Ferrat (music), Wim Sonneveld (performer), "Het Dorp"
404 L<Announced on 2014-10-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/10/msg221399.html>
408 Thuis heb ik nog een ansichtkaart
409 waarop een kerk, een kar met paard,
410 een slagerij J. van der Ven.
411 Een kroeg, een juffrouw op de fiets
412 het zegt u hoogstwaarschijnlijk niets,
413 maar 't is waar ik geboren ben.
414 Dit dorp, ik weet nog hoe het was,
415 de boerenkind'ren in de klas,
416 een kar die ratelt op de keien,
417 het raadhuis met een pomp ervoor,
418 een zandweg tussen koren door,
419 het vee, de boerderijen.
421 En langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
422 zag ik de hoge bomen staan.
423 Ik was een kind en wist niet beter,
424 dan dat dat nooit voorbij zou gaan.
426 Wat leefden ze eenvoudig toen
427 in simp'le huizen tussen groen
428 met boerenbloemen en een heg.
429 Maar blijkbaar leefden ze verkeerd,
430 het dorp is gemoderniseerd
431 en nu zijn ze op de goeie weg.
432 Want ziet, hoe rijk het leven is,
433 ze zien de televisiequiz
434 en wonen in betonnen dozen,
435 met flink veel glas, dan kun je zien
436 hoe of het bankstel staat bij Mien
437 en d'r dressoir met plastic rozen.
439 En langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
440 zag ik de hoge bomen staan.
441 Ik was een kind en wist niet beter,
442 dan dat dat nooit voorbij zou gaan.
444 De dorpsjeugd klit wat bij elkaar
445 in minirok en beatle-haar
446 en joelt wat mee met beat-muziek.
447 Ik weet wel, het is hun goeie recht,
448 de nieuwe tijd, net wat u zegt,
449 maar het maakt me wat melancholiek.
450 Ik heb hun vaders nog gekend
451 ze kochten zoethout voor een cent
452 ik zag hun moeders touwtjespringen.
453 Dat dorp van toen, het is voorbij,
454 dit is al wat er bleef voor mij:
455 een ansicht en herinneringen.
457 Toen ik langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
458 de hoge bomen nog zag staan.
459 Ik was een kind, hoe kon ik weten
460 dat dat voorgoed voorbij zou gaan.
462 =head2 v5.21.4 - Edgar Allan Poe, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket"
464 L<Announced on 2014-09-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg220267.html>
466 To-day, being in latitude 83° 20', longitude 43° 5' W. (the sea being
467 of an extraordinarily dark colour), we again saw land from the
468 masthead, and, upon a closer scrutiny, found it to be one of a group
469 of very large islands. The shore was precipitous, and the interior
470 seemed to be well wooded, a circumstance which occasioned us great
471 joy. In about four hours from our first discovering the land we came
472 to anchor in ten fathoms, sandy bottom, a league from the coast, as a
473 high surf, with strong ripples here and there, rendered a nearer
474 approach of doubtful expediency. The two largest boats were now
475 ordered out, and a party, well armed (among whome were Peters and
476 myself), proceeded to look for an opening in the reef which appeared
477 to encircle the island. After searching about for some time, we
478 discovered an inlet, which we were entering, when we saw four large
479 canoes put off from the shore, filled with men who seemed to be well
480 armed. We waited for them to come up, and, as they moved with great
481 rapidity, they were soon within hail. Captain Guy now held up a white
482 handkerchief on the blade of an oar, when the strangers made a full
483 stop, and commenced a loud jabbering all at once, intermingled with
484 occasional shouts, in which we could distinguish the words Anamoo-moo!
485 and Lama-Lama! They continued this for at least half an hour, during
486 which we had a good opportunity of observing their appearance.
488 =head2 v5.21.3 - Robert Service, "The Men that Don't Fit In"
490 L<Announced on 2014-08-20 by Peter Martini|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/08/msg218826.html>
492 If they just went straight they might go far,
493 They are strong and brave and true;
494 But they're always tired of the things that are,
495 And they want the strange and new.
496 They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
497 What a deep mark I would make!"
498 So they chop and change, and each fresh move
499 Is only a fresh mistake.
501 =head2 v5.21.2 - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Final minutes of communication of the first manned moon landing, July 20, 1969
503 L<Announced on 2014-07-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/07/msg217937.html>
505 Armstrong: Okay. Here's a...Looks like a good area here.
506 Aldrin: I got the shadow out there.
507 Aldrin: 250, down at 2 1/2, 19 forward.
508 Aldrin: Altitude, velocity lights.
509 Aldrin: 3 1/2 down, 220 feet, 13 forward.
510 Aldrin: 11 forward. Coming down nicely.
511 Armstrong: Gonna be right over that crater.
512 Aldrin: 200 feet, 4 1/2 down.
514 Armstrong: I got a good spot [garbled].
515 Aldrin: 160 feet, 6 1/2 down.
516 Aldrin: 5 1/2 down, 9 forward. You're looking good.
518 Aldrin: 100 feet, 3 1/2 down, 9 forward. Five percent. Quantity light.
519 Aldrin: Okay. 75 feet. And it's looking good. Down a half, 6 forward.
522 Aldrin: 60 feet, down 2 1/2. 2 forward. 2 forward. That's good.
523 Aldrin: 40 feet, down 2 1/2. Picking up some dust.
524 Aldrin: 30 feet, 2 1/2 down. [Garbled] shadow.
525 Aldrin: 4 forward. 4 forward. Drifting to the right a little. 20 feet,
528 Aldrin: Drifting forward just a little bit; that's good.
529 Aldrin: Contact Light.
531 Aldrin: Okay. Engine Stop.
532 Aldrin: ACA out of Detent.
533 Armstrong: Out of Detent. Auto.
534 Aldrin: Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off.
535 Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.
536 Duke: We copy you down, Eagle.
537 Armstrong: Engine arm is off.
538 Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
539 Duke: Roger, Twan...[correcting himself] Tranquility. We copy you on
540 the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
541 We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.
544 =head2 v5.21.1 - Robert Jordan, "The Crossroads of Twilights", Book 10 of "The Wheel of Time"
546 L<Announced on 2014-06-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/06/msg217030.html>
548 We rode on the winds of the rising storm,
549 We ran to the sounds of the thunder.
550 We danced among the lightning bolts,
551 and tore the world asunder.
553 -- Anonymous fragment of a poem believed
554 written near the end of the previous Age,
555 known by some as the Third Age.
556 Sometimes attributed to the Dragon
559 =head2 v5.21.0 - Friedrich von Schiller, "The Song of the Bell"
561 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215826.html>
563 Walled in fast within the earth
564 Stands the form burnt out of clay.
565 This must be the bell’s great birth!
566 Fellows, lend a hand to-day.
567 Sweat must trickle now
568 From the burning brow,
569 Till the work its master honour.
570 Blessing comes from Heaven’s Donor.
572 =head2 v5.20.3 - Elias Lönnrot, trans. Keith Bosley, "The Kalevala", Canto 42: Stealing the Sampo
574 L<Announced on 2015-09-12 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/09/msg230945.html>
576 Steady old Väinämöinen
577 uttered a word and spoke thus:
578 'No lilting on the waters
579 and no singing on the waves!
582 Precious day would pass and night
583 would overtake us midway
585 upon these vast waves.'
587 The wanton Lemminkäinen
588 uttered a word and spoke thus:
589 'The time will pass anyway
590 the fair day will flee
591 and the night will come panting
592 and the twilight will steal in
593 if you don't sing while you live
594 nor hum in this world.'
596 =head2 v5.20.3-RC2 - Anon., trans. Malcolm C. Lyons, "The Story of Abu Muhammad the Idle and the Marvels He Encountered with the Ape As Well As the Marvels of the Seas and Islands", from "Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange"
598 L<Announced on 2015-08-29 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/08/msg230544.html>
600 'I fled from Basra, sad and tearful, with no idea where I was going,
601 and I was reciting these lines:
603 The pain of parting makes me melt away,
604 As lovers do when those they love are harsh.
605 I wonder at the patience that I showed
606 When I had lost my love, for that was wonderful.
607 Beloved, do you know that since you left,
608 I have remained confused in misery.
610 I then heard a voice that said: "Damn you, have you no fear of
611 Almighty God that you hand over a girl to an unbelieving 'ifrit?" I
612 walked for a time amongst the palm-trees until I caught sight of a
613 person, whom I approached. When I asked him who he was he said: "I
614 am one of the jinn who were converted to Islam at the hands of 'Ali
615 ibn Abi Talib, may God ennoble him." "How can I get to my wife?" I
616 asked him, and he said: "Wretched fellow, you had a bird which you
617 allowed to fly away and now you want to fly after it." But he
618 added: "Follow this road with God's blessing all night until dawn
619 and then by the shore you will see a huge cave in which there is an
620 idol made of white stone. You must drink of the water that there is
621 coming out of the cave and smear your face with its mud. Stay there
622 and a barge will pass you as you stand opposite the statue. Various
623 different creatures will emerge, heads without bodies and bodies
624 without heads, and they will prostrate themselves in adoration to
625 the idol rather than to Almighty God. When you see that, embark on
626 the barge and cross to the other bank and walk along it until
627 sunset. On a high point you will see a castle built of bricks of
628 gold and silver. That is where your 'ifrit will be. I have now
629 told you about this, so goodbye."
631 =head2 v5.20.3-RC1 - Anon., trans. Malcolm C. Lyons, "The Story of Abu Muhammad the Idle and the Marvels He Encountered with the Ape As Well As the Marvels of the Seas and Islands", from "Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange"
633 L<Announced on 2015-08-22 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/08/msg230359.html>
635 'On the night of the wedding the ape came to sit in front of me and
636 asked me what I intended to do. "Whatever you tell me," I replied,
637 and he said: "Take care not to covet the girl, or I shall come back
638 and burn you up and leave you as a lesson for those who can learn."
639 I agreed to this and when evening came I found the world full of
640 candles and torches burning in holders of gold and silver. There
641 were servants and serving girls, and everyone who saw me
642 congratulated me on my good fortune, as there was no girl on the
643 face of the earth more beautiful than my bride.
645 'Next morning I went out to the market, and people went in and asked
646 her how the night had been. "He never looked up at me," she told
647 them. Then, when it was afternoon, I went to my house, where the
648 ape was sitting by the door. "Tell me what you did," it said, and I
649 told it: "By God, I did not learn and do not know whether this was a
650 man or a girl." "That's what I want," it said.
652 'On the second night my bride was brought to me, after which the
653 servants left her and went away. She fell asleep, and, while she
654 was sleeping, I killed the cock, wrapped it in the cloth and put the
655 four poles from the couch over it. Suddenly there was a huge crash
656 like a peal of thunder and a fiery 'ifrit swooped on the girl. I
657 fainted at the sight and when I recovered I heard a voice saying:
658 "By the Lord of the Ka'ba, the girl has been carried off!" and there
659 was a sound like the rustling of wind and bitter weeping. At this I
660 shed tears, struck my head and was filled with regret when it was no
661 longer of any use, for to me the whole world was worth no more than
664 =head2 v5.20.2 - Jonathan "Jonti" Picking, L<"Magical Trevor"|http://www.weebls-stuff.com/other-toons/video/magical-trevor.html>
666 L<Announced on 2015-02-14 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/02/msg225777.html>
668 Everyone loves Magical Trevor,
669 'Cos the tricks that he does are ever so clever;
670 Look at him now, disappearin' the cow,
671 Where is the cow hidden right now?
673 Taking a bow, it's Magical Trevor,
674 Everybody's seen that the trick is clever;
675 Look at him there with his leathery, leathery whip!
676 It's made of magic, and with a little flip--
678 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back,
679 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the cow is back;
680 Back, back, back from his magical journey,
683 What did he see in the parallel dimension?
684 He saw beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, lots of beans;
685 Oh, beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, lots of beans,
688 =head2 v5.20.2-RC1 - Jonathan "Jonti" Picking, L<"Scampi"|http://www.weebls-stuff.com/other-toons/video/scampi.html>
690 L<Announced on 2015-02-01 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/02/msg225273.html>
693 I've seen them with my eyes;
695 They're often in disguise.
697 Like carrots, handbags, cheese, toilets,
698 Russians, planets, hamsters, weddings,
699 Poets, Stalin, Kuala Lumpur!
700 Pygmies, budgies, Kuala Lumpur!
703 I've seen them with my eyes;
705 They're often in disguise.
707 Like carrots, handbags, cheese...
709 =head2 v5.20.1 - Lorenzo da Ponte, trans. Diana Reed, "Così fan tutte"
711 L<Announced on 2014-09-14 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg219789.html>
713 DORABELLA (as if waking from a daze): Where are they?
714 DON ALFONSO: They've gone.
715 FIORDILIGI: Oh, the cruel bitterness of parting!
718 Take heart, my dearest children.
719 Look, in the distance, your lovers are waving to you.
721 FIORDILIGI: Bon voyage, my darling!
722 DORABELLA: Bon voyage!
725 O heavens! How swiftly the ship is sailing away!
726 It is disappearing already!
727 It is no longer in sight!
728 Oh, may heaven grant it a prosperous voyage!
730 DORABELLA: May good luck attend it to the battlefield!
731 DON ALFONSO: And may your sweethearts and my friends be safe!
733 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA, DON ALFONSO:
734 May the wind be gentle,
740 =head2 v5.20.1-RC2 - Lorenzo da Ponte, trans. William Weaver, "Così fan tutte"
742 L<Announced on 2014-09-07 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg219446.html>
745 Oh God, I feel that this foot of mine
746 is reluctant to come before her.
753 The hero displays his manliness
754 in the most terrible moments.
756 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA:
757 Now that we have heard the news,
758 you have the lesser duty:
759 Take heart, and plunge your swords
760 into both our hearts.
764 that I must abandon you.
766 DORABELLA: Ah no, you shall not leave...
767 FIORDILIGI: No, cruel one, you shall not go...
768 DORABELLA: First I want to tear out my heart.
769 FIORDILIGI: First I want to die at your feet.
770 FERRANDO (softly to Don Alfonso): What do you say to that?
771 GUGLIELMO (softly to Don Alfonso): You realise?
772 DON ALFONSO (softly): Steady, friend, finem lauda.
775 Thus destiny defrauds
776 the hopes of mortals.
777 Ah, among so many misfortunes,
778 who can ever love life?
780 =head2 v5.20.1-RC1 - Lorenzo da Ponte, trans. William Weaver, "Così fan tutte"
782 L<Announced on 2014-08-25 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/08/msg218975.html>
785 I'd like to speak, but I haven't the heart:
787 My voice cannot emerge,
788 but remains in my throat.
789 What will you do? What shall I do?
790 Oh what a great catastrophe!
791 There can be nothing worse.
792 I feel pity for you and for them.
794 FIORDILIGI: Heavens! For mercy's sake, Signor Alfonso, don't make us
796 DON ALFONSO: My children, you must arm yourselves with constancy.
797 DORABELLA: Ye Gods! What evil has occurred? What horrible event? Is my
799 FIORDILIGI: Is mine dead?
800 DON ALFONSO: They are not dead, but they are not far from it.
804 DON ALFONSO: Nor that.
805 FIORDILIGI: What, then?
806 DON ALFONSO: A royal command summons them to the field of battle.
807 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA: Alas, what do I hear? And they will leave?
808 DON ALFONSO: Immediately.
809 DORABELLA: And there is no way of preventing it?
810 DON ALFONSO: There is none.
811 FIORDILIGI: And not even a single farewell...
812 DON ALFONSO: The unhappy men haven't the courage to see you; but if
813 you wish it, they are ready...
814 DORABELLA: Where are they?
815 DON ALFONSO: Come in, friends.
817 =head2 v5.20.0 - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
819 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215815.html>
821 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
822 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
823 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
824 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
825 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
826 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
828 =head2 v5.20.0-RC1 - Lindsey Buckingham, "Second Hand News"
830 L<Announced on 2014-05-17 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215479.html>
834 Won't you lay me down in tall grass
835 And let me do my stuff
837 =head2 v5.19.11 - Isidore-Lucien Ducasse [as "Comte de Lautréamont"], trans. Paul Knight, "Les Chants de Maldoror"
839 L<Announced on 2014-04-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/04/msg214580.html>
841 O rigorous mathematics, I have not forgotten you since your wise lessons,
842 sweeter than honey, filtered into my heart like a refreshing wave.
843 Instinctively, from the cradle, I had longed to drink from your source, older
844 than the sun, and I continue to tread the sacred sanctuary of your solemn
845 temple, I, the most faithful of your devotees. There was a vagueness in my
846 mind, something thick as smoke; but I managed to mount the steps which lead to
847 your altar, and you drove away this dark veil, as the wind blows the
848 draught-board. You replaced it with excessive coldness, consummate prudence and
849 implacable logic. With the aid of your fortifying milk, my intellect developed
850 rapidly and took on immense proportions amid the ravishing lucidity which you
851 bestow as a gift on all those who sincerely love you. Arithmetic! Algebra!
852 Geometry! Awe-inspiring trinity! Luminous triangle! He who has not known you
855 =head2 v5.19.10 - John Chadwick, "The Decipherment of Linear B"
857 L<Announced on 2014-03-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/03/msg213851.html>
859 The urge to discover secrets is deeply ingrained in human nature; even
860 the least curious mind is roused by the promise of sharing knowledge
861 withheld from others. Some are fortunate enough to find a job which
862 consists in the solution of mysteries, whether it be the physicist who
863 tracks down a hitherto unknown nuclear particle or the policeman who
864 detects a criminal. But most of us are driven to sublimate this urge
865 by the solving of artificial puzzles devised for our entertainment.
867 =head2 v5.19.9 - R. A. MacAvoy, "Tea with the Black Dragon"
869 L<Announced on 2014-02-20 by Tony Cook|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/02/msg213047.html>
871 Old hands. The smell of rain--the smell of Ch'an. Quiet words in
872 rough Cantonese. "I am not to be your master. Your master has to be
873 stronger than you are--has to tell you you are a fool and make you
874 know it. And make you feel content in being a fool. How could I do
875 that for you? I'm old. You are too strong for me; you are full of
876 chi." The old man has paused then, huddled against the wind while
877 clouds thickened above them.
879 "I will tell you this, Long," he continued, "Before you find yourself
880 you will lose your chi. Also you will leave behind you all pride of
881 body, pride of mind. You will be reduced. Like me." The old man
882 closed his eyes, and rain began to beat against his gray, crew-cut
883 hair. He pulled his coat closer. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and
884 he looked Long in the face.
886 "You must leave China. Go across the ocean. There you will meet your
887 master." He set down his teacup with a palsied hand. His voice rose,
890 "I tell you this, most honored and impressive visitor. You are a
891 fool, yes, but you will find the very thing you seek. You will find
894 =head2 v5.19.8 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
896 L<Announced on 2014-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211729.html>
898 “I used to get a big kick out of saving people’s lives. Now I wonder what the
899 hell’s the point, since they all have to die anyway.”
901 “Oh, there’s a point, all right,” Dunbar assured him.
903 “Is there? What is the point?”
905 “The point is to keep them from dying for as long as you can.”
907 “Yeah, but what’s the point, since they all have to die anyway?”
909 “The trick is not to think about that.”
911 “Never mind the trick. What the hell’s the point?”
913 Dunbar pondered in silence for a few moments. “Who the hell knows?”
915 =head2 v5.19.7 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five"
917 L<Announced on 2013-12-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/12/msg210882.html>
919 And somewhere in there was springtime. The corpse mines were closed
920 down. The soldiers all left to fight the Russians. In the suburbs,
921 the women and children dug rifle pits. Billy and the rest of his group
922 were locked up in the stable in the suburbs. And then, one morning,
923 they got up to discover that the door was unlocked. World War Two in
926 Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were
927 leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any
928 kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two
929 horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped.
933 One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Pee-tee-weet?"
935 =head2 v5.19.6 - Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Spam"
937 L<Announced on 2013-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/11/msg210043.html>
939 Interior: cheap cafe. All the customers are Vikings. Mr and Mrs Bun enter downwards (on wires).
943 Mr. Bun: What have you got, then?
944 Waitress: Well there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam;
945 egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam;
946 spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam;
947 or lobster thermidor aux crevettes, with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried
949 Mrs. Bun: Have you got anything without spam in it?
950 Waitress: Well, there's spam, egg, sausage and spam. That's not got MUCH spam in it.
951 Mrs. Bun: I don't want ANY spam.
952 Mr. Bun: Why can't she have egg, bacon, spam and sausage?
953 Mrs. Bun: That's got spam in it!
954 Mr. Bun: Not as much as spam, egg, sausage and spam.
955 Mrs. Bun: Look, could I have egg, bacon, spam and sausage, without the spam.
956 Waitress: Uuuuuuggggh!
957 Mrs. Bun: What d'you mean, uugggh! I don't like spam.
958 Vikings: (singing) Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam ... spam, spam, spam, spam ... lovely spam, wonderful spam ...
960 (Brief shot of a Viking ship)
962 Waitress: Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! You can't have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
964 Waitress: No, it wouldn't be egg, bacon, spam and sausage, would it?
965 Mrs. Bun: I don't like spam!
967 =head2 v5.19.5 - Charles Baudelaire, trans. James McGowan, "The Flowers of Evil", 51. The Cat
969 L<Announced on 2013-10-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/10/msg208752.html>
973 A cat is strolling through my mind
974 Acting as though he owned the place,
975 A lovely cat -- strong, charming, sweet.
976 When he meows, one scarcely hears,
978 So tender and discreet his tone;
979 But whether he should growl or purr
980 His voice is always rich and deep.
981 That is the secret of his charm.
983 This purling voice that filters down
984 Into my darkest depths of soul
985 Fulfils me like a balanced verse,
986 Delights me as a potion would.
988 It puts to sleep the cruellest ills
989 And keeps a rein on ecstasies --
990 Without the need for any words
991 It can pronounce the longest phrase.
993 Oh no, there is no bow that draws
994 Across my heart, fine instrument,
995 And makes to sing so royally
996 The strongest and the purest chord,
998 More than your voice, mysterious cat,
999 Exotic cat, seraphic cat,
1000 In whom all is, angelically,
1001 As subtle as harmonious.
1005 From his soft fur, golden and brown,
1006 Goes out so sweet a scent, one night
1007 I might have been embalmed in it
1008 By giving him one little pet.
1010 He is my household's guardian soul;
1011 He judges, he presides, inspires
1012 All matters in hos royal realm;
1013 Might he be fairy? or a god?
1015 When my eyes, to this cat I love
1016 Drawn as by a magnet's force,
1017 Turn tamely back from that appeal,
1018 And when I look within myself,
1020 I notice with astonishment
1021 The fire of his opal eyes,
1022 Clear beacons glowing, living jewels,
1023 Taking my measure, steadily.
1025 =head2 v5.19.4 - Washington Irving, "The Widow and Her Son"
1027 L<Announced on 2013-09-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/09/msg207969.html>
1029 There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood;
1030 that softens the heart and brings it back to the feelings of infancy.
1031 Who that has languished, even in advanced life, in sickness and
1032 despondency — who that has pined on a weary bed in the neglect and
1033 loneliness of a foreign land — but has thought on the mother "that
1034 looked on his childhood," that smoothed his pillow and administered to
1035 his helplessness. — Oh! there is an enduring tenderness in the love
1036 of a mother to her son that transcends all other affections of the
1037 heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness — nor daunted by
1038 danger — nor weakened by worthlessness — nor stifled by ingratitude.
1039 She will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience — she will
1040 surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment — she will glory in his fame
1041 and exult in his prosperity. And if misfortune overtake him he will
1042 be the dearer to her from misfortune — and if disgrace settle upon his
1043 name, she will still love and cherish him in spite of his disgrace —
1044 and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to
1047 =head2 v5.19.3 - Andrew Hodges, "Alan Turing: The Enigma"
1049 L<Announced on 2013-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg206318.html>
1051 E.M. Forster, outdoing the King's heresy with grand bravura, had
1052 written in 1938 that if he were faced with the choice between
1053 betraying his country and betraying his friends, he hoped he would
1054 have the courage to betray his country. He would always put the
1055 personal above the political. But for Alan Turing, unlike Forster, or
1056 Wittgenstein, or G.H. Hardy, it was more than a theoretical question.
1057 For him not only had the personal become the political, but the
1058 political was the personal. He had chosen and promised for himself in
1059 working for the government. The choice for him therefore was that
1060 between betraying one part of himself and betraying another part. And
1061 however much he wavered between these alternatives, there was a solid
1062 logic to the mind of security, one that could not be expected to take
1063 an interest in notions of freedom and development. He had no rights
1064 to such things, as he would have had to admit. He might have
1065 outwitted the Home Guard, but when it came to questions that mattered,
1066 there was no doubt that he had placed himself under military law.
1067 There was a war on; there was always a war on now.
1069 =head2 v5.19.2 - Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month"
1071 L<Announced on 2013-07-22 by Aristotle Pagaltzis|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/07/msg204905.html>
1073 The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the
1074 correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life,
1075 showing things that never were nor could be. [...] Not all is delight,
1076 however [...] One must perform perfectly. The computer resembles the
1077 magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of
1078 the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn't work.
1080 =head2 v5.19.1 - William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
1082 L<Announced on 2013-06-21 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/06/msg203449.html>
1084 Over hill, over dale,
1085 Thorough bush, thorough briar,
1086 Over park, over pale,
1087 Thorough flood, thorough fire,
1088 I do wander everywhere,
1089 Swifter than the moon's sphere;
1090 And I serve the fairy queen,
1091 To dew her orbs upon the green.
1092 The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
1093 In their gold coats, spots you see;
1094 Those be rubies, fairy favours,
1095 In their freckles live our savours.
1096 I must go seek some dew-drops here,
1097 And hang a perl in every cowslip's ear.
1098 Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone;
1099 My queen and all her elves come here anon!
1101 =head2 v5.19.0 - Batman, of the Joker, in "The Dark Knight Returns"
1103 L<Announced on 2013-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201980.html>
1105 From the beginning, I knew…
1106 …that there was nothing wrong with you…
1110 =head2 v5.18.4 - Robert W. Chambers, Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow," Act I, Scene 2
1112 L<Announced on 2014-10-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/10/msg220770.html>
1114 Along the shore the cloud waves break,
1115 The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
1116 The shadows lengthen
1119 Strange is the night where black stars rise,
1120 And strange moons circle through the skies
1121 But stranger still is
1124 Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
1125 Where flap the tatters of the King,
1129 Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
1130 Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
1131 Shall dry and die in
1134 =head2 v5.18.3 - (no epigraph)
1138 =head2 v5.18.3-RC2 - Robert W. Chambers, "The King in Yellow", Act I, Scene 2
1140 L<Announced on 2014-09-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg220613.html>
1142 "Ah! I see it now!" I shrieked. "You have seized the throne and the
1143 empire. Woe! woe to you who are crowned with the crown of the King in
1146 =head2 v5.18.3-RC1 - Robert W. Chambers, "The King in Yellow", Act I, Scene 2
1148 L<Announced on 2014-09-17 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg220072.html>
1150 CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.
1154 CASSILDA: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
1156 STRANGER: I wear no mask.
1158 CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
1160 =head2 v5.18.2 - Miss Manners
1162 L<Announced on 2014-01-06 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211224.html>
1164 One of the major mistakes people make is that they think manners are
1165 only the expression of happy ideas. There's a whole range of behavior
1166 that can be expressed in a mannerly way. That's what civilization is all
1167 about – doing it in a mannerly and not an antagonistic way. One of the
1168 places we went wrong was the naturalistic Rousseauean movement of the
1169 Sixties in which people said, "Why can't you just say what's on your
1170 mind?" In civilization there have to be some restraints. If we followed
1171 every impulse, we'd be killing one another.
1173 =head2 v5.18.1 - Chuck Moore
1175 L<Announced on 2013-08-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205897.html>
1177 The operating system is another concept that is curious. Operating
1178 systems are dauntingly complex and totally unnecessary. It’s a brilliant
1179 thing that Bill Gates has done in selling the world on the notion of
1180 operating systems. It’s probably the greatest con game the world has
1183 An operating system does absolutely nothing for you. As long as you had
1184 something — a subroutine called disk driver, a subroutine called some
1185 kind of communication support, in the modern world, it doesn’t do
1186 anything else. In fact, Windows spends a lot of time with overlays and
1187 disk management all stuff like that which are irrelevant. You’ve got
1188 gigabyte disks; you’ve got megabyte RAMs. The world has changed in a way
1189 that renders the operating system unnecessary.
1191 =head2 v5.18.1-RC1 - Chuck Moore
1193 L<Announced on 2013-08-02 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205445.html>
1195 Compilers are probably the worst code ever written. They are written by
1196 someone who has never written a compiler before and will never do so
1197 again. The more elaborate the language, the more complex, bug-ridden,
1198 and unusable is the compiler. But a simple compiler for a simple
1199 language is an essential tool—if only for documentation.
1201 =head2 v5.18.0 - Yevgeny Zamyatin
1203 L<Announced on 2013-05-18 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201940.html>
1205 It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people
1206 who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write,
1207 walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes,
1208 and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in
1209 search, in questions, in torment.
1211 =head2 v5.18.0-RC4 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
1213 L<Announced on 2013-05-16 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201889.html>
1215 Clevinger was dead. That was the basic flaw in his philosophy.
1217 =head2 v5.18.0-RC3 - Tom Waits, "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me"
1219 L<Announced on 2013-05-14 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201823.html>
1221 I'd love to go drowning
1222 And to stay and to stay
1223 But the ocean doesn't want me today
1224 I'll go in up to here
1225 It can't possibly hurt
1226 All they will find is my beer
1229 =head2 v5.18.0-RC2 - Tom Waits, "Earth Died Screaming"
1231 L<Announced on 2013-05-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201723.html>
1233 And the great day of wrath has come
1234 And here's mud in your big red eye
1235 The poker's in the fire
1236 And the locusts take the sky
1237 And the earth died screaming
1238 While I lay dreaming of you
1240 =head2 v5.18.0-RC1 - Tom Waits, "What's He Building in There?"
1242 L<Announced on 2013-05-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201651.html>
1244 What's he building in there?
1246 We have a right to know…
1248 =head2 v5.17.11 - Nigel Tufnel in "This is Spın̈al Tap"
1250 L<Announced on 2013-04-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/04/msg201056.html>
1252 It's very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to…
1253 eleven! Look, right across the board: eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven!
1255 =head2 v5.17.10 - Vernor Vinge, "A Fire Upon The Deep"
1257 L<Announced on 2013-03-23 by Max Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/03/msg200504.html>
1259 The archive informed the automation. Data structures were built, recipes
1260 followed. A local network was built, faster than anything on Straum, but surely
1261 safe. Nodes were added, modified by other recipes. The archive was a friendly
1262 place, with hierarchies of translation keys that led them along. Straum itself
1263 would be famous for this.
1265 Six months passed. A year.
1267 The omniscient view. Not self-aware really. Self-awareness is much over-rated.
1268 Most automation works far better as a part of a whole, and even if human-
1269 powerful, it does not need to self-know.
1271 =head2 v5.17.9 - Douglas Adams, "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy"
1273 L<Announced on 2013-02-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/02/msg199115.html>
1275 Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.
1276 The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a
1277 recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of
1278 his poem 'Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My
1279 Armpit One Midsummer Morning' four of his audience died
1280 of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the
1281 Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one
1282 of his own legs off. Grunthos is reported to have been
1283 'disappointed' by the poem's reception, and was about to
1284 embark on a reading of his twelve-book epic entitled
1285 'My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles' when his own major intestine,
1286 in a desperate attempt to save life and civilisation,
1287 leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.
1289 The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator
1290 Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England,
1291 in the destruction of the planet Earth.
1293 =head2 v5.17.8 - Iain Pears, "An Instance of the Fingerpost"
1295 L<Announced on 2013-01-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/01/msg197571.html>
1297 I must here declare myself as someone who does not for a moment subscribe to
1298 the general view that a willingness to perform oneself is detrimental to the
1299 dignity of experimental philosophy. There is, after all, a clear distinction
1300 between labour carried out for financial reward, and that done for the
1301 improvement of mankind: to put it another way, Lower as a philosopher was
1302 fully my equal even if he fell away when he became the practising physician.
1303 I think ridiculous of certain professors of anatomy, who find it beneath
1304 them to pick up the knife themselves, but merely comment while hired hands
1305 do the cutting. Sylvius would never have dreamt of sitting on a dais reading
1306 from an authority while others cut — when he taught, the knife was
1307 in his hand and the blood spattered his coat. Boyle also did not scruple to
1308 perform his own experiments and, on one occasion in my presence, even showed
1309 himself willing to anatomise a rat with his very own hands. Nor was he less
1310 a gentleman when he had finished. Indeed, in my opinion, his stature was all
1311 the greater, for in Boyle wealth, humility and curiosity mingled, and the
1312 world is richer for it.
1314 =head2 v5.17.7 - R. Scott Bakker, "The Darkness That Comes Before"
1316 L<Announced on 2012-12-18 by Dave Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/12/msg196707.html>
1320 The boy extinguished. Only a place.
1324 Motionless, the Pragma sat facing him, the bare soles of his feet flat against each other, his dark frock scored by the shadows of deep folds, his eyes as empty as the child they watched.
1326 A place without breath or sound. A place of sight alone. A place without before or after . . . almost.
1328 For the first lances of sunlight careered over the glacier, as ponderous as great tree limbs in the wind. Shadows hardened and light gleamed across the Pragma’s ancient skull.
1330 The old man’s left hand forsook his right sleeve, bearing a watery knife. And like a rope in water, his arm pitched outward, fingertips trailing across the blade as the knife swung languidly into the air, the sun skating and the dark shrine plunging across its mirror back . . .
1332 And the place where Kellhus had once existed extended an open hand—the blond hairs like luminous filaments against tanned skin—and grasped the knife from stunned space.
1334 The slap of pommel against palm triggered the collapse of place into little boy. The pale stench of his body. Breath, sound, and lurching thoughts.
1336 I have been legion . . .
1338 In his periphery, he could see the spike of the sun ease from the mountain. He felt drunk with exhaustion. In the recoil of his trance, it seemed all he could hear were the twigs arching and bobbing in the wind, pulled by leaves like a million sails no bigger than his hand. Cause everywhere, but amid countless minute happenings—diffuse, useless.
1342 =head2 v5.17.6 - Kurt Vonnegut, "The Sirens of Titan"
1344 L<Announced on 2012-11-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/11/msg195659.html>
1346 Beatrice, looking like a gypsy queen, smoldered at the foot of a statue
1347 of a young physical student. At first glance, the laboratory-gowned
1348 scientist seemed to be a perfect servant of nothing but truth. At first
1349 glance, one was convinced that nothing but truth could please him as he
1350 beamed at his test tube. At first glance, one thought that he was as
1351 much above the beastly concerns of mankind as the harmoniums in the
1352 caves of Mercury. There, at first glance, was a young man without
1353 vanity, without lust — and one accepted at its face value the title Salo
1354 had engraved on the statue, "Discovery of Atomic Power."
1356 =head2 v5.17.5 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
1358 L<Announced on 2012-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194349.html>
1360 Neither of them noticed the pair of polka-dotted knickers hiding
1361 behind the ventilation duct overhead, listening patiently and
1362 recording everything.
1364 =head2 v5.17.4 - Roald Dahl, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
1366 L<Announced on 2012-09-19 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/09/msg192635.html>
1368 The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
1369 She whips a pistol from her knickers.
1370 She aims it at the creature's head,
1371 And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
1373 A few weeks later, in the wood,
1374 I came across Miss Riding Hood.
1375 But what a change! No cloak of red,
1376 No silly hood upon her head.
1377 She said, "Hello, and do please note
1378 My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
1380 =head2 v5.17.3 - Kris Ta-belle, "Smoked Perl Onion Soup"
1382 L<Announced on 2012-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190775.html>
1386 Cut 16 Perl Onions into quarters and put them in a grill smoker rack
1387 or a perforated pan over a BBQ using hickory wood chips or Special
1388 Blend Smoker Bisquettes. Smoke them for an hour and remove once they
1390 Let them cool and put them in the fridge (or freezer) until you are
1391 ready to create the soup.
1395 16 diced, pre-smoked, Perl Onions
1398 2 small garlic cloves, finely minced
1401 black pepper to taste
1403 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1404 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
1405 1 cup of thick cream (milk can be used as a substitute)
1409 Melt the butter in a pan and then add olive oil.
1410 Heat and add the onions to caramelize over a medium-high heat for up
1412 Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
1413 Add the salt, pepper and sugar.
1414 Now add the red wine and reduce to a jam like consistency.
1415 Add the flour, stir well and add the stock a cup at a time.
1416 Simmer for 30 minutes, add the cream and heat to almost boiling.
1420 =head2 v5.17.2 - Terry Pratchet, "The Colour of Magic"
1422 L<Announced on 2012-07-21 by TonyC|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/07/msg189828.html>
1424 ‘I knew it,’ said Rincewind. ‘We're in a strong magical field.’
1426 Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made
1427 their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
1429 The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow
1430 butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme
1431 and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
1433 Hrun shrugged and went back to oiling his biceps. They gleamed.
1435 ‘Looks alright to me,’ he said.
1437 ‘Try tossing a coin,’ said Rincewind.
1441 ‘Go on. Toss a coin.’
1443 ‘Hokay,’ said Hrun. 'If that gives you any pleasure.’ He reached into
1444 his pouch and withdrew a handful of loose change plundered from a
1445 dozen realms. With some care he selected a Zchloty leaden
1446 quarter-iotum and balanced it on a purple thumbnail.
1448 ‘You call,’ he said. ‘Heads or—’ he inspected the obverse with
1449 an air of intense concentration, ‘some sort of a fish with legs.’
1451 ‘When it's in the air,’ said Rincewind. Hrun grinned and flicked his thumb.
1453 The iotum rose, spinning.
1455 ‘Edge,’ said Rincewind, without looking at it.
1457 =head2 v5.17.1 - Rand Miller, "Myst: The Book of Ti'ana"
1459 L<Announced on 2012-06-20 by doy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/06/msg188354.html>
1461 On their return from Ko'ah, Aitrus had shown her the Book, patiently
1462 taking her through page after page, and showing her how such an Age was
1463 "made." She had seen at once the differences between this archaic form
1464 and the ordinary written speech of the D'ni, noting how it was not
1465 merely more elaborate but more specific: a language of precise yet
1466 subtle descriptive power. Yet seeing was one thing, believing another.
1467 Given all the evidence, her rational mind still fought against accepting
1470 =head2 v5.17.0 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
1472 L<Announced on 2012-05-26 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg187214.html>
1474 `Welcome, comrades!' Burya opened his arms toward the soldier.
1475 `Yes it is true! With help from our allies of the Festival, the iron
1476 hand of the reactionary junta is about to be overthrown for all time!
1477 The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has
1478 been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can
1479 be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination,
1480 to each according to his needs! Join us or better still, bring your
1481 fellow soldiers and workers to join us!'
1483 There was a sharp bang from the roof of the Corn Exchange, right at the
1484 climax of his impromptu speech; heads turned in alarm. Something had
1485 broken inside the spork factory and a stream of rainbow-hued plastic
1486 implements fountained toward the sky and clattered to the cobblestones
1487 on every side, like a harbinger of the postindustrial society to come.
1488 Workers and peasants alike stared in open-mouthed bewilderment at this
1489 astounding display of productivity, then bent to scrabble in the muck
1490 for the brightly colored sporks of revolution. A volley of shots rang
1491 out and Burya Rubenstein raised his hands, grinning wildly, to accept
1492 the salute of the soldiers from the Skull Hill garrison.
1494 =head2 v5.16.3 - Devo, "Freedom of Choice"
1496 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/03/msg200009.html>
1498 A victim of collision on the open sea
1499 Nobody ever said that life was free
1500 Sink, swim, go down with the ship
1501 But use your freedom of choice
1503 =head2 v5.16.2 - Stanislaw Lem, "The Cyberiad", Trurl's Machine
1505 L<Announced on 2012-11-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/11/msg194915.html>
1507 Once upon a time Trurl the constructor built an eight-story thinking
1508 machine. When it was finished, he gave it a coat of white paint,
1509 trimmed the edges in lavender, stepped back, squinted, then added a
1510 little curlicue on the front and, where one might imagine the forehead
1511 to be, a few pale orange polkadots. Extremely pleased with himself,
1512 he whistled an air and, as is always done on such occasions, asked it
1513 the ritual question of how much is two plus two.
1515 The machine stirred. Its tubes began to glow, its coils warmed up,
1516 current coursed through all its circuits like a waterfall,
1517 transformers hummed and throbbed, there was a clanging, and a
1518 chugging, and such an ungodly racket that Trurl began to think of
1519 adding a special mentation muffler. Meanwhile the machine labored on,
1520 as if it had been given the most difficult problem in the Universe to
1521 solve; the ground shook, the sand slid underfoot from the vibration,
1522 valves popped like champagne corks, the relays nearly gave way under
1523 the strain. At last, when Trurl had grown extremely impatient, the
1524 machine ground to a halt and said in a voice like thunder: SEVEN!
1526 =head2 v5.16.1 - Emerald Rose, "Never Split The Party"
1528 L<Announced on 2012-08-08 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190413.html>
1530 Don't you know? You never split the party
1531 Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty
1532 The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light
1533 And you never let that damn thief out of sight…
1535 =head2 v5.16.1-RC1 - Tom Moldvay, Foreward to the "Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook"
1537 L<Announced on 2012-08-03 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190264.html>
1539 I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up.
1540 Fifty feed of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes.
1541 Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers.
1542 The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.
1546 I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The
1547 sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow
1548 collection of precious gems. I shouted my battle cry and charged
1550 My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut
1551 inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The
1552 swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other
1553 side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet.
1554 The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the
1555 dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.
1557 =head2 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"
1559 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg186903.html>
1561 All I have is a voice
1562 To undo the folded lie,
1563 The romantic lie in the brain
1564 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
1565 And the lie of Authority
1566 Whose buildings grope the sky:
1567 There is no such thing as the State
1568 And no one exists alone;
1569 Hunger allows no choice
1570 To the citizen or the police;
1571 We must love one another or die.
1573 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan, "Blowin' In The Wind"
1575 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/03/msg184824.html>
1577 How many roads must a man walk down
1578 Before you call him a man?
1579 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
1580 Before she sleeps in the sand?
1581 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
1582 Before they're forever banned?
1583 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1584 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1586 How many years can a mountain exist
1587 Before it's washed to the sea?
1588 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
1589 Before they're allowed to be free?
1590 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
1591 Pretending he just doesn't see?
1592 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1593 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1595 How many times must a man look up
1596 Before he can see the sky?
1597 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
1598 Before he can hear people cry?
1599 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
1600 That too many people have died?
1601 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1602 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1604 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF, "The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way"
1606 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
1608 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
1609 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
1610 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
1611 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
1612 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
1614 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
1615 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
1616 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
1617 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
1618 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
1619 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
1620 Top for more than one week.
1622 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
1623 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
1624 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
1625 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
1626 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
1627 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
1628 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
1630 "I'm never going to give you up"
1632 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, "The Voyage of QV66"
1634 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
1636 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
1638 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
1639 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
1640 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
1641 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
1642 ALL DAY CHIMPS ONLY.
1644 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
1645 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
1646 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
1647 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
1648 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
1649 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
1650 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
1651 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
1652 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
1653 down cheering and applauding.
1655 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
1657 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, "A Wizard of Earthsea"
1659 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
1661 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
1662 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
1663 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
1664 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
1665 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
1666 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
1668 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
1669 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
1670 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
1671 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
1672 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
1673 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
1674 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
1675 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
1677 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, "The Diary of a Madman"
1679 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
1681 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
1682 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
1683 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
1684 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
1685 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
1686 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
1687 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
1688 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
1689 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
1690 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
1691 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
1692 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
1693 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
1694 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
1695 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
1696 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
1697 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
1698 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
1699 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
1700 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
1701 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
1703 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
1705 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
1707 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
1708 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
1709 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
1710 the human experience, the better design we will have.
1712 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, From the preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
1714 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
1716 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
1717 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
1718 do so at their peril.
1720 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
1721 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
1722 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
1723 artist is in accord with himself.
1725 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
1726 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
1727 thing is that one admires it intensely.
1729 All art is quite useless.
1731 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, trans., C. F. MacIntyre, "Duino", The First Elegy
1733 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/08/msg176067.html>
1735 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
1736 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
1737 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
1738 things the significance of a human future;
1739 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
1740 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
1741 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
1742 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
1743 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
1744 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
1745 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
1746 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
1747 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
1748 hurtles all ages along with it forever
1749 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
1751 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
1753 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
1755 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
1756 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
1757 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
1758 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
1759 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
1760 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
1761 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
1763 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
1764 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
1765 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
1766 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
1767 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
1770 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
1771 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
1774 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
1776 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
1778 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.
1780 =head2 v5.14.4 - Arthur C. Clarke, "The Nine Billion Names of God"
1782 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/03/msg199988.html>
1784 He began to sing, but gave it up after a while. This vast arena of
1785 mountains, gleaming like whitely hooded ghosts on every side, did not
1786 encourage such ebullience. Presently George glanced at his watch.
1788 'Should be there in an hour,' he called back over his shoulder to
1789 Chuck. Then he added, in an afterthought: 'Wonder if the computer's
1790 finished its run. It was due about now.'
1792 Chuck didn't reply, so George swung round in his saddle. He could just
1793 see Chuck's face, a white oval turned towards the sky.
1795 'Look,' whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There
1796 is always a last time for everything.)
1798 Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
1800 =head2 v5.14.3 - William Shakespeare, "As You Like It"
1802 L<Announced on 2012-10-12 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194057.html>
1804 The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all
1805 this time there was not any man died in his own person,
1806 videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed
1807 out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die
1808 before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he
1809 would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned
1810 nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good
1811 youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
1812 being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish
1813 coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these
1814 are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have
1815 eaten them, but not for love.
1817 =head2 v5.14.2 - L<< Larry Wall, January 12, 1988 <992@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> |http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sources.d/msg/5d17fa68c250b9b2 >>
1819 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
1821 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
1822 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
1823 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
1824 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
1825 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
1826 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
1828 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
1829 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
1830 the heart of the programmer.
1832 =head2 v5.14.1 - L<< Larry Wall, January 12, 1988 <992@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> |http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sources.d/msg/5d17fa68c250b9b2 >>
1834 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
1836 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
1837 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
1838 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
1839 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
1840 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
1841 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
1842 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
1843 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
1844 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
1846 =head2 v5.14.0 - L<< Larry Wall, January 12, 1988 <992@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> |http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sources.d/msg/5d17fa68c250b9b2 >>
1848 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
1850 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
1851 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
1852 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
1853 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
1854 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
1855 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
1857 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
1858 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
1859 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
1860 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
1861 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
1862 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
1863 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
1865 So a freely distributable program is born.
1867 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
1869 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
1871 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
1872 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
1873 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
1874 and your bags will be offloaded.
1876 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
1878 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
1880 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
1881 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
1882 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
1883 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
1884 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
1885 down their paved streets.
1887 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
1888 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
1889 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
1890 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
1891 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
1892 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
1894 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
1896 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
1898 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
1899 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
1900 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
1901 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
1902 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
1903 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
1904 This seemed doubly astounding to me—first that Australia could
1905 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
1906 this had never reached me.
1908 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<"Leaves of Grass"|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
1910 L<Announced on 2011-03-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/03/msg170206.html>
1912 When the full-grown poet came,
1913 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
1914 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
1915 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
1916 Nay he is mine alone;
1917 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
1919 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly
1921 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
1922 And wholly and joyously blends them.
1924 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<"Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar"|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
1926 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
1928 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
1929 nema ráða vel kunni.
1930 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
1931 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
1933 tíu launstafi ristna.
1934 Þat hefr lauka lindi
1935 langs ofrtrega fengit.
1937 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
1939 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
1941 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
1942 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
1943 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
1944 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
1945 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
1946 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
1947 that fire can truly light the world.
1949 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
1950 ask what you can do for your country.
1952 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
1953 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
1955 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
1956 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
1957 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
1958 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
1959 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
1960 work must truly be our own.
1962 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
1964 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
1966 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
1967 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
1968 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
1969 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
1970 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
1971 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
1972 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
1973 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
1974 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
1975 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
1978 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
1979 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
1980 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
1981 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
1982 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
1983 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
1985 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, "The Matrix"
1987 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
1989 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
1993 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
1995 Trinity: What did you just say?
1996 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
1997 Trinity: What did you see?
1998 Cypher: What happened?
1999 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just
2001 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
2002 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
2003 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
2005 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when
2006 they change something.
2008 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
2010 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
2012 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
2015 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
2016 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
2017 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
2020 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
2021 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
2023 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
2024 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
2027 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
2029 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
2031 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
2033 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
2034 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
2035 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
2036 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
2037 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
2038 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
2039 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
2040 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
2041 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
2042 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
2044 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
2045 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
2046 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
2047 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
2048 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
2049 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
2051 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
2052 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
2053 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
2054 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
2057 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2059 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
2061 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
2062 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
2063 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
2064 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
2066 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
2067 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
2068 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
2069 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
2072 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
2074 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
2077 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
2078 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
2080 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
2082 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
2084 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
2085 with his nose, you know?'
2087 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
2088 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
2090 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
2092 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
2094 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
2095 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
2096 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
2097 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
2098 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
2100 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
2101 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
2102 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
2103 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
2104 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
2105 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
2106 had ever even been a car.
2108 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
2109 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
2110 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
2111 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
2114 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
2115 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
2116 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
2117 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
2119 It should have fallen apart miles back.
2121 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
2123 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
2125 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
2126 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
2127 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
2128 there exist ... special circumstances.
2130 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
2132 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
2134 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
2135 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
2136 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
2137 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
2138 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
2139 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
2140 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
2142 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
2144 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
2146 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
2147 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
2148 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
2149 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
2150 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
2151 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
2152 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
2154 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
2155 volcano were once more to set to work."
2157 =head2 v5.12.5 - William Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure"
2159 L<Announced on 2012-11-10 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/11/msg195171.html>
2161 Music oft hath such a charm
2162 To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
2164 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
2166 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
2168 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
2169 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
2170 When breakfast is taken away,
2171 To turn his attention to dinner;
2172 And it's not in the range of belief,
2173 To look upon him as a glutton,
2174 Who, when he is tired of beef,
2175 Determines to tackle the mutton.
2176 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
2177 If it will appease her sorrow,
2178 I'll marry this lady today,
2179 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
2181 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
2183 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
2185 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
2186 Tolerates no work of man.
2187 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
2188 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
2189 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
2190 While the last larks sing and soar,
2191 From the heather-blossoms sweet
2192 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
2193 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
2194 Eleanor makes macaroons!
2196 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
2198 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
2200 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
2201 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
2202 Lobster I freely endorse,
2203 In pate or patty or pasty.
2204 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
2205 And nothing the matter with jam,
2206 And the warmest greetings I utter
2207 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
2210 And I think very fondly of food.
2211 Through I'm broody at times
2212 When bothered by rhymes,
2216 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
2218 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
2220 I saw a huge steam roller,
2221 It blotted out the sun.
2222 The people all lay down, lay down;
2223 They did not try to run.
2224 My love and I, we looked amazed
2225 Upon the gory mystery.
2226 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
2227 'The great machine is history!'
2228 My love and I, we ran away,
2229 The engine did not find us.
2230 We ran up to a mountain top,
2231 Left history far behind us.
2232 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
2233 But somehow we don't think so.
2234 We went to see where history'd been,
2235 And my, the dead did stink so.
2237 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
2239 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
2241 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
2242 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
2243 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
2245 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
2246 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
2247 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
2248 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
2249 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
2250 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
2251 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
2252 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
2254 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
2256 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
2258 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
2259 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
2260 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
2261 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
2262 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
2263 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
2264 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
2265 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
2266 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
2267 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
2268 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
2270 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
2272 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
2274 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
2275 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
2276 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
2277 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
2278 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
2279 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
2280 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
2281 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
2282 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
2283 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
2284 and-thirty degrees."
2286 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
2288 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
2290 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
2291 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
2292 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
2295 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
2296 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
2297 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
2298 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
2300 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
2302 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
2304 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
2305 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
2306 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
2307 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
2308 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
2309 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
2310 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
2311 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
2313 Around and around and around we spin,
2314 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
2316 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2318 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
2320 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
2321 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
2322 your cat grins like that?'
2324 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
2326 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
2327 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
2328 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
2330 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
2331 that cats COULD grin.'
2333 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
2335 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2337 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
2339 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
2342 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
2343 there was silence for some minutes.
2345 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2347 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
2349 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
2350 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
2351 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
2352 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
2353 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
2354 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
2356 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2358 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
2360 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
2361 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
2362 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
2363 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
2364 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
2366 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
2367 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
2368 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
2369 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
2370 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
2371 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
2373 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
2375 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
2377 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2379 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
2381 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
2382 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
2383 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
2384 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
2387 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
2388 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
2389 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
2390 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
2391 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
2392 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
2393 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
2394 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
2395 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
2396 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
2397 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
2399 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
2400 in the world she was to get out again.
2402 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
2404 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
2406 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
2408 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
2410 A little child, a limber elf,
2411 Singing, dancing to itself,
2412 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
2413 That always finds, and never seeks,
2414 Makes such a vision to the sight
2415 As fills a father's eyes with light;
2416 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
2417 Upon his heart, that he at last
2418 Must needs express his love's excess
2419 With words of unmeant bitterness.
2420 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
2421 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
2422 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
2423 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
2424 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
2425 At each wild word to feel within
2426 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
2427 And what, if in a world of sin
2428 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
2429 Such giddiness of heart and brain
2430 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
2431 So talks as it's most used to do.
2433 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
2435 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
2437 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
2438 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
2439 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
2440 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
2441 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
2442 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
2443 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
2444 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
2445 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
2447 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
2449 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
2451 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
2452 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
2454 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
2456 "Why ain't that work?"
2458 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
2459 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
2461 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
2463 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
2464 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
2466 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
2467 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
2468 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
2469 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
2470 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
2472 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
2474 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by Léon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
2476 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
2477 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
2478 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
2479 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
2480 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
2481 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
2482 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
2483 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
2484 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
2485 however much they're into colour.
2487 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
2489 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
2491 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
2492 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
2493 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
2494 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
2495 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
2496 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
2497 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
2498 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
2499 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Milo
2500 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
2501 for more hazardous assignment.
2503 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
2505 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
2507 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
2508 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
2509 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
2510 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
2511 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
2512 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
2513 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
2514 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
2515 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
2516 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
2517 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
2520 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2522 L<Announced on 2009-08-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
2524 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
2525 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
2526 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
2527 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
2528 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
2529 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
2530 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
2531 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
2532 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
2533 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
2535 'Can they all type?' I joked.
2537 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
2538 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
2540 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
2541 'We could have opened an agency.'
2543 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
2544 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
2545 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
2546 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
2548 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
2549 replied. 'Not quite all.'
2551 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
2553 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
2555 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
2557 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
2559 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2561 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
2563 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
2564 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
2565 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
2566 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
2567 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
2568 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
2569 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
2571 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
2573 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
2575 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
2577 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
2579 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
2581 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
2582 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
2584 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
2586 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
2588 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
2590 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
2592 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
2594 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/04/msg99421.html>
2596 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
2597 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
2598 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
2599 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
2600 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
2601 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
2602 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
2603 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
2604 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
2605 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
2606 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
2607 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
2608 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
2609 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
2610 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
2612 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
2613 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
2614 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
2616 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
2617 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
2618 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
2619 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
2622 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
2624 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/03/msg89722.html>
2626 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
2628 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
2630 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/10/msg84147.html>
2632 What of October, that ambiguous month
2634 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2636 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
2638 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
2639 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
2640 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
2641 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
2642 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
2644 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
2646 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
2647 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
2649 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
2650 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
2651 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
2652 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
2654 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
2655 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
2656 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
2657 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
2658 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
2659 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
2660 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
2661 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
2663 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
2664 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
2666 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
2667 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
2668 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
2669 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
2670 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
2671 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
2672 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
2673 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
2674 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
2675 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
2677 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
2678 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
2679 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
2681 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
2682 pushing to increase the membership?
2684 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
2685 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
2686 futile and impotent it becomes.'
2688 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
2690 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
2691 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
2693 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2695 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142422.html>
2697 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
2698 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
2699 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
2700 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
2701 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
2703 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
2704 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
2705 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
2706 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
2707 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
2710 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
2711 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
2712 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
2714 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
2715 redundancy payments as well.'
2717 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
2718 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
2720 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
2722 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2724 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
2726 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
2727 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
2728 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
2731 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
2733 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
2734 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
2735 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
2736 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
2737 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
2738 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
2739 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
2741 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
2742 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
2743 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
2744 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
2745 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
2746 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
2747 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
2748 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
2750 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
2751 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
2753 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
2754 name like Charlie Umtali?
2756 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
2757 know something about our official visitor.
2759 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
2760 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
2761 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
2762 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
2763 knew little of his background.
2765 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
2766 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
2767 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
2769 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
2773 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
2774 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
2775 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
2777 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
2778 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
2780 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
2781 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
2782 revolving door and comes out in front.'
2784 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
2786 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
2788 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
2790 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
2792 L<Announced on 2006-01-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109190.html>
2794 It's not that easy bein' green
2795 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
2796 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
2797 Or something much more colorful like that
2799 It's not easy bein' green
2800 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
2801 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
2802 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
2805 But green's the color of Spring
2806 And green can be cool and friendly-like
2807 And green can be big like an ocean
2808 Or important like a mountain
2811 When green is all there is to be
2812 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
2813 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
2814 And I think it's what I want to be
2816 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
2818 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg108833.html>
2820 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
2822 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
2824 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2826 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg101088.html>
2828 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
2829 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
2832 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
2833 the wolf? What then?"
2835 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2837 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
2839 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
2840 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
2841 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
2843 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
2844 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
2845 climbed up the high stone wall.
2847 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
2848 stretched out over the wall.
2850 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
2851 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
2852 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
2854 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
2855 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
2857 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
2858 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
2860 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
2862 L<Announced on 2004-11-27 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg96304.html>
2864 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
2867 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
2869 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
2870 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
2871 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
2873 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
2875 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
2878 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
2879 grow up into a beehive."
2881 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
2883 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
2884 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
2885 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
2887 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
2889 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
2890 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
2891 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
2893 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
2895 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
2897 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
2899 "Hunting," said Pooh.
2903 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
2905 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
2907 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
2909 "What do you think you'll answer?"
2911 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
2912 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
2915 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
2916 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
2918 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
2920 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/07/msg93189.html>
2922 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
2923 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
2924 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
2925 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
2926 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
2927 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
2930 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
2931 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
2932 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
2933 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
2934 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
2935 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
2936 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
2937 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
2938 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
2939 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
2941 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
2943 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/07/msg92934.html>
2945 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
2946 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
2947 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
2948 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
2949 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
2951 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
2952 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
2953 Caledonia and South America.
2955 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
2957 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/07/msg92840.html>
2959 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
2960 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
2961 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
2962 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
2963 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
2964 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
2965 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
2967 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
2968 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
2969 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
2970 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
2972 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
2973 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
2974 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
2975 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
2977 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
2978 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
2980 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
2982 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/04/msg90984.html>
2984 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
2985 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
2986 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
2987 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
2989 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
2990 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
2991 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
2992 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
2993 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
2994 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
2995 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
2996 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
2998 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
2999 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
3002 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
3004 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/04/msg90796.html>
3006 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
3007 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
3008 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
3009 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
3011 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
3012 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
3013 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
3014 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
3015 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
3016 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
3018 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
3020 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/04/msg90422.html>
3022 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
3023 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
3024 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
3025 We must find him of the train can't start.'
3026 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
3027 They are searching high and low,
3028 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
3029 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
3030 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
3031 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
3032 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
3033 He's been busy in the luggage van!
3034 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
3035 And the signal goes 'All Clear!'
3036 And we're off at last of the northern part
3037 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
3039 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
3041 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/01/msg87317.html>
3043 We are the music makers,
3044 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
3045 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
3046 And sitting by desolate streams; --
3047 World-losers and world-forsakers,
3048 On whom the pale moon gleams:
3049 Yet we are the movers and shakers
3050 Of the world for ever, it seems.
3052 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
3054 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/01/msg86969.html>
3056 There may be trouble ahead,
3057 But while there's music and moonlight,
3058 And love and romance,
3059 Let's face the music and dance.
3061 Before the fiddlers have fled,
3062 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
3063 And while we still have that chance,
3064 Let's face the music and dance.
3066 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
3067 Humming a different tune, and then,
3069 There may be teardrops to shed,
3070 So while there's music and moonlight,
3071 And love and romance,
3072 Let's face the music and dance.
3074 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
3076 L<Announced on 2003-11-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/11/msg84822.html>
3078 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
3079 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
3080 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
3081 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
3082 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
3083 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
3085 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
3086 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
3087 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
3088 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
3091 O farther farther sail!
3092 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
3093 O farther, farther, farther sail!
3095 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle and John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
3097 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/11/msg84645.html>
3099 It's fun to charter an accountant
3100 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
3101 To find, explore the funds offshore
3102 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
3104 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
3106 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/10/msg84194.html>
3108 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
3109 In a Sieve they went to sea:
3110 In spite of all their friends could say,
3111 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
3112 In a Sieve they went to sea!
3113 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
3114 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
3115 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
3116 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
3117 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
3119 Far and few, far and few,
3120 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
3121 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
3122 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
3124 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
3126 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
3128 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
3130 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
3132 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
3133 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
3134 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
3135 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
3136 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
3138 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
3140 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
3142 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
3143 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
3144 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
3145 then you can be my most trusted minister."
3147 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
3149 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
3151 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
3152 a knife with a curved blade.
3154 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
3156 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
3158 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
3159 me because I've got magic aaargh."
3161 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
3163 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
3165 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
3166 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
3169 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
3170 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
3171 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
3172 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
3173 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
3174 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
3176 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
3178 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
3180 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
3181 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
3182 said the low priest.
3183 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
3184 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
3185 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
3186 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
3187 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
3188 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
3189 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
3190 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
3191 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
3192 said the High Priest.
3193 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
3194 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
3195 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
3196 There were footsteps again.
3198 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
3200 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
3202 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
3204 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
3206 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
3208 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
3210 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
3212 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
3214 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
3215 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
3216 got there first, and is waiting for it.
3218 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
3220 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
3222 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
3223 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
3224 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
3225 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
3226 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
3228 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
3230 L<Announced on 2001-04-09 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
3232 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
3234 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
3236 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
3237 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
3238 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
3239 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
3240 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
3241 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
3242 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
3243 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
3244 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
3245 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
3247 "All that?" said Twoflower.
3251 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
3253 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
3255 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
3256 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
3257 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
3259 =head2 v5.6.2 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
3261 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/11/msg85222.html>
3263 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
3264 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
3265 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
3266 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
3267 long in this instance.
3269 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
3271 L<Announced on 2003-11-08 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/11/msg84953.html>
3273 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
3275 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
3277 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
3279 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
3280 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
3283 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
3284 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
3286 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
3287 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
3290 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
3291 my precious, three guesseses.'
3293 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
3295 L<Announced on 2001-04-01 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
3297 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
3299 No announcement available.
3301 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
3303 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
3305 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
3307 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
3309 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
3311 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
3313 The dragon is withered,
3314 His bones are now crumbled;
3315 His armour is shivered,
3316 His splendour is humbled!
3317 Though sword shall be rusted,
3318 And throne and crown perish
3319 With strength that men trusted
3320 And wealth that they cherish,
3321 Here grass is still growing,
3322 And leaves are a yet swinging,
3323 The white water flowing,
3324 And elves are yet singing
3325 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
3326 Come back to the valley.
3328 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
3330 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
3332 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
3334 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
3336 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
3338 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/03/msg89047.html>
3340 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
3342 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/02/msg88672.html>
3344 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
3345 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
3346 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
3347 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
3348 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
3349 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
3350 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
3351 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
3352 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
3353 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
3356 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
3358 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/02/msg88312.html>
3360 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
3361 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
3362 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
3363 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
3364 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
3365 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
3366 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
3367 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
3368 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
3369 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
3372 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
3374 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/12/msg86423.html>
3376 't was 16 years ago today
3377 Larry taught us a new game
3378 of lazyness, impatience, and hubris
3379 Happy birthday, Perl!
3381 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
3383 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
3384 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
3385 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>