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 <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 v5.17.6 - Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
22 L<Announced on 2012-11-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00760.html>
24 Beatrice, looking like a gypsy queen, smoldered at the foot of a statue
25 of a young physical student. At first glance, the laboratory-gowned
26 scientist seemed to be a perfect servant of nothing but truth. At first
27 glance, one was convinced that nothing but truth could please him as he
28 beamed at his test tube. At first glance, one thought that he was as
29 much above the beastly concerns of mankind as the harmoniums in the
30 caves of Mercury. There, at first glance, was a young man without
31 vanity, without lust — and one accepted at its face value the title Salo
32 had engraved on the statue, "Discovery of Atomic Power."
34 =head2 v5.12.5 - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
36 Announced on 2012-11-10 by Dominic Hargreaves
38 Music oft hath such a charm
39 To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
41 =head2 v5.16.2 - Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad, Trurl's Machine
43 L<Announced on 2012-11-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00017.html>
45 Once upon a time Trurl the constructor built an eight-story thinking
46 machine. When it was finished, he gave it a coat of white paint,
47 trimmed the edges in lavender, stepped back, squinted, then added a
48 little curlicue on the front and, where one might imagine the forehead
49 to be, a few pale orange polkadots. Extremely pleased with himself,
50 he whistled an air and, as is always done on such occasions, asked it
51 the ritual question of how much is two plus two.
53 The machine stirred. Its tubes began to glow, its coils warmed up,
54 current coursed through all its circuits like a waterfall,
55 transformers hummed and throbbed, there was a clanging, and a
56 chugging, and such an ungodly racket that Trurl began to think of
57 adding a special mentation muffler. Meanwhile the machine labored on,
58 as if it had been given the most difficult problem in the Universe to
59 solve; the ground shook, the sand slid underfoot from the vibration,
60 valves popped like champagne corks, the relays nearly gave way under
61 the strain. At last, when Trurl had grown extremely impatient, the
62 machine ground to a halt and said in a voice like thunder: SEVEN!
64 =head2 v5.17.5 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
66 L<Announced on 2012-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-10/msg01007.html>
68 Neither of them noticed the pair of polka-dotted knickers hiding
69 behind the ventilation duct overhead, listening patiently and
72 =head2 v5.17.4 - Roald Dahl, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
74 L<Announced on 2012-09-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-09/msg01226.html>
76 The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
77 She whips a pistol from her knickers.
78 She aims it at the creature's head,
79 And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
81 A few weeks later, in the wood,
82 I came across Miss Riding Hood.
83 But what a change! No cloak of red,
84 No silly hood upon her head.
85 She said, "Hello, and do please note
86 My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
88 =head2 v5.17.3 - Kris Ta-belle, "Smoked Perl Onion Soup"
90 L<Announced on 2012-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190775.html>
94 Cut 16 Perl Onions into quarters and put them in a grill smoker rack
95 or a perforated pan over a BBQ using hickory wood chips or Special
96 Blend Smoker Bisquettes. Smoke them for an hour and remove once they
98 Let them cool and put them in the fridge (or freezer) until you are
99 ready to create the soup.
103 16 diced, pre-smoked, Perl Onions
106 2 small garlic cloves, finely minced
109 black pepper to taste
111 1/4 cup all purpose flour
112 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
113 1 cup of thick cream (milk can be used as a substitute)
117 Melt the butter in a pan and then add olive oil.
118 Heat and add the onions to caramelize over a medium-high heat for up
120 Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
121 Add the salt, pepper and sugar.
122 Now add the red wine and reduce to a jam like consistency.
123 Add the flour, stir well and add the stock a cup at a time.
124 Simmer for 30 minutes, add the cream and heat to almost boiling.
128 =head2 v5.17.2 - Terry Pratchet, "The Colour of Magic"
130 L<Announced on 2012-07-21 by TonyC|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/07/msg189828.html>
132 ‘I knew it,’ said Rincewind. ‘We're in a strong magical field.’
134 Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made
135 their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
137 The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow
138 butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme
139 and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
141 Hrun shrugged and went back to oiling his biceps. They gleamed.
143 ‘Looks alright to me,’ he said.
145 ‘Try tossing a coin,’ said Rincewind.
149 ‘Go on. Toss a coin.’
151 ‘Hokay,’ said Hrun. 'If that gives you any pleasure.’ He reached into
152 his pouch and withdrew a handful of loose change plundered from a
153 dozen realms. With some care he selected a Zchloty leaden
154 quarter-iotum and balanced it on a purple thumbnail.
156 ‘You call,’ he said. ‘Heads or—’ he inspected the obverse with
157 an air of intense concentration, ‘some sort of a fish with legs.’
159 ‘When it's in the air,’ said Rincewind. Hrun grinned and flicked his thumb.
161 The iotum rose, spinning.
163 ‘Edge,’ said Rincewind, without looking at it.
165 =head2 v5.17.1 - Rand Miller, "Myst: The Book of Ti'ana"
167 L<Announced on 2012-06-20 by doy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/06/msg188354.html>
169 On their return from Ko'ah, Aitrus had shown her the Book, patiently
170 taking her through page after page, and showing her how such an Age was
171 "made." She had seen at once the differences between this archaic form
172 and the ordinary written speech of the D'ni, noting how it was not
173 merely more elaborate but more specific: a language of precise yet
174 subtle descriptive power. Yet seeing was one thing, believing another.
175 Given all the evidence, her rational mind still fought against accepting
178 =head2 v5.17.0 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
180 L<Announced on 2012-05-26 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg187214.html>
182 `Welcome, comrades!' Burya opened his arms toward the soldier.
183 `Yes it is true! With help from our allies of the Festival, the iron
184 hand of the reactionary junta is about to be overthrown for all time!
185 The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has
186 been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can
187 be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination,
188 to each according to his needs! Join us or better still, bring your
189 fellow soldiers and workers to join us!'
191 There was a sharp bang from the roof of the Corn Exchange, right at the
192 climax of his impromptu speech; heads turned in alarm. Something had
193 broken inside the spork factory and a stream of rainbow-hued plastic
194 implements fountained toward the sky and clattered to the cobblestones
195 on every side, like a harbinger of the postindustrial society to come.
196 Workers and peasants alike stared in open-mouthed bewilderment at this
197 astounding display of productivity, then bent to scrabble in the muck
198 for the brightly colored sporks of revolution. A volley of shots rang
199 out and Burya Rubenstein raised his hands, grinning wildly, to accept
200 the salute of the soldiers from the Skull Hill garrison.
202 =head2 v5.16.1 - Emerald Rose - Never Split The Party
204 L<Announced on 2012-08-08 by Ricardo
205 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00307.html>
207 Don't you know? You never split the party
208 Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty
209 The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light
210 And you never let that damn thief out of sight…
212 -- Emerald Rose, Never Split The Party
214 =head2 v5.16.1 RC1 - Tom Moldvay - Dungeons & Dragons
216 L<Announced on 2012-08-03 by Ricardo
217 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00157.html>
219 I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up.
220 Fifty feed of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes.
221 Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers.
222 The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.
226 I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The
227 sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow
228 collection of precious gems. I shouted my battle cry and charged
230 My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut
231 inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The
232 swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other
233 side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet.
234 The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the
235 dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.
237 -- Tom Moldvay, Foreward to the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook
239 =head2 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden - September 1, 1939
241 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo
242 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-05/msg00728.html>
244 All I have is a voice
245 To undo the folded lie,
246 The romantic lie in the brain
247 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
248 And the lie of Authority
249 Whose buildings grope the sky:
250 There is no such thing as the State
251 And no one exists alone;
252 Hunger allows no choice
253 To the citizen or the police;
254 We must love one another or die.
256 -- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
258 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
260 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by
261 Abigail|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/184824>
263 How many roads must a man walk down
264 Before you call him a man?
265 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
266 Before she sleeps in the sand?
267 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
268 Before they're forever banned?
269 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
270 The answer is blowin' in the wind
272 How many years can a mountain exist
273 Before it's washed to the sea?
274 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
275 Before they're allowed to be free?
276 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
277 Pretending he just doesn't see?
278 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
279 The answer is blowin' in the wind
281 How many times must a man look up
282 Before he can see the sky?
283 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
284 Before he can hear people cry?
285 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
286 That too many people have died?
287 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
288 The answer is blowin' in the wind
290 -- Bob Dylan, Spring 1962
292 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF - The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way
294 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max
295 Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
297 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
298 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
299 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
300 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
301 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
303 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
304 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
305 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
306 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
307 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
308 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
309 Top for more than one week.
311 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
312 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
313 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
314 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
315 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
316 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
317 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
319 "I'm never going to give you up"
321 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, The Voyage of QV66
323 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams
324 |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
326 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
328 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
329 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
330 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
331 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
334 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
335 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
336 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
337 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
338 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
339 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
340 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
341 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
342 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
343 down cheering and applauding.
345 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
347 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea
349 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave
350 Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
352 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
353 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
354 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
355 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
356 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
357 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
359 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
360 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
361 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
362 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
363 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
364 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
365 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
366 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
368 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman
370 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve
371 Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
373 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
374 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
375 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
376 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
377 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
378 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
379 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
380 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
381 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
382 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
383 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
384 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
385 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
386 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
387 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
388 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
389 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
390 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
391 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
392 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
393 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
395 -- Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman,
396 trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
398 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
400 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian
401 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
403 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
404 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
405 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
406 the human experience, the better design we will have.
408 =head2 v5.14.3 - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
410 L<Announced on 2012-10-12 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194057.html>
412 The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all
413 this time there was not any man died in his own person,
414 videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed
415 out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die
416 before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he
417 would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned
418 nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good
419 youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
420 being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish
421 coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these
422 are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have
423 eaten them, but not for love.
425 -- As You Like It, William Shakespeare
427 =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 >>
429 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian
430 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
433 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
434 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
435 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
436 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
437 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
438 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
440 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
441 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
442 the heart of the programmer.
445 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, All Art is Quite Useless
447 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan
448 Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
450 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
451 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
452 do so at their peril.
454 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
455 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
456 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
457 artist is in accord with himself.
459 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
460 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
461 thing is that one admires it intensely.
463 All art is quite useless.
465 -- Oscar Wilde, From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
468 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Third Duina Elegy
470 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo
471 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-08/msg00694.html>
473 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
474 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
475 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
476 things the significance of a human future;
477 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
478 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
479 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
480 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
481 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
482 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
483 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
484 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
485 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
486 hurtles all ages along with it forever
487 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
489 -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino, The First Elegy
490 trans., C. F. MacIntyre
492 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
494 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
496 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
497 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
498 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
499 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
500 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
501 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
502 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
504 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
505 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
506 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
507 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
508 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
511 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
512 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
515 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
517 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
519 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all
520 you will have gained.
522 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
524 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
526 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
527 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
528 When breakfast is taken away,
529 To turn his attention to dinner;
530 And it's not in the range of belief,
531 To look upon him as a glutton,
532 Who, when he is tired of beef,
533 Determines to tackle the mutton.
534 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
535 If it will appease her sorrow,
536 I'll marry this lady today,
537 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
539 =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 >>
541 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
543 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
544 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
545 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
546 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
547 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
548 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
549 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
550 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
551 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
553 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
555 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
557 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
558 Tolerates no work of man.
559 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
560 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
561 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
562 While the last larks sing and soar,
563 From the heather-blossoms sweet
564 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
565 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
566 Eleanor makes macaroons!
568 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
570 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
572 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
573 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
574 Lobster I freely endorse,
575 In pate or patty or pasty.
576 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
577 And nothing the matter with jam,
578 And the warmest greetings I utter
579 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
582 And I think very fondly of food.
583 Through I'm broody at times
584 When bothered by rhymes,
588 =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 >>
590 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
592 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
593 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
594 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
595 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
596 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
597 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
599 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
600 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
601 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
602 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
603 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
604 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
605 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
607 So a freely distributable program is born.
609 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
611 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
613 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
614 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
615 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
616 and your bags will be offloaded.
618 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, Fordlandia, "the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
620 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
622 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
623 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
624 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
625 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
626 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
627 down their paved streets.
629 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
630 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
631 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
632 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
633 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
634 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
636 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
638 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
640 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
641 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
642 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
643 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
644 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
645 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
646 This seemed doubly astounding to meE<0x2014>first that Australia could
647 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
648 this had never reached me.
650 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<Leaves of Grass|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
652 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-03/msg00560.html>
654 When the full-grown poet came,
655 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
656 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
657 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
658 Nay he is mine alone;
659 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
661 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands,
662 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
663 And wholly and joyously blends them.
665 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
667 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
669 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
671 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
672 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
674 tíu launstafi ristna.
676 langs ofrtrega fengit.
678 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
680 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
682 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
683 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
684 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
685 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
686 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
687 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
688 that fire can truly light the world.
690 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
691 ask what you can do for your country.
693 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
694 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
696 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
697 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
698 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
699 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
700 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
701 work must truly be our own.
703 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
705 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
707 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
708 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
709 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
710 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
711 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
712 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
713 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
714 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
715 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
716 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
719 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
720 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
721 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
722 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
723 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
724 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
726 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
728 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
730 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
734 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
736 Trinity: What did you just say?
737 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
738 Trinity: What did you see?
739 Cypher: What happened?
740 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
741 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
742 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
743 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
745 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
747 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
749 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
751 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
754 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
755 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
756 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
759 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
760 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
762 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
763 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
766 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
768 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
770 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
772 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
773 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
774 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
775 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
776 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
777 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
778 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
779 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
780 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
781 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
783 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
784 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
785 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
786 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
787 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
788 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
790 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
791 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
792 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
793 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
796 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
798 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
800 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
801 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
802 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
803 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
805 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
806 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
807 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
808 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
811 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
813 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
816 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
817 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
819 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
821 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
823 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
824 with his nose, you know?'
826 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
827 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
829 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
831 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
833 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
834 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
835 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
836 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
837 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
839 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
840 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
841 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
842 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
843 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
844 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
845 had ever even been a car.
847 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
848 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
849 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
850 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
853 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
854 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
855 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
856 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
858 It should have fallen apart miles back.
860 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
862 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
864 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
865 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
866 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
867 there exist ... special circumstances.
869 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
871 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
873 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
874 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
875 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
876 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
877 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
878 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
879 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
881 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
883 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
885 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
886 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
887 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
888 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
889 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
890 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
891 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
893 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
894 volcano were once more to set to work."
896 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
898 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
900 I saw a huge steam roller,
901 It blotted out the sun.
902 The people all lay down, lay down;
903 They did not try to run.
904 My love and I, we looked amazed
905 Upon the gory mystery.
906 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
907 'The great machine is history!'
908 My love and I, we ran away,
909 The engine did not find us.
910 We ran up to a mountain top,
911 Left history far behind us.
912 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
913 But somehow we don't think so.
914 We went to see where history'd been,
915 And my, the dead did stink so.
917 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
919 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
921 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
922 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
923 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
925 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
926 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
927 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
928 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
929 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
930 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
931 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
932 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
934 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
936 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
938 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
939 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
940 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
941 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
942 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
943 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
944 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
945 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
946 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
947 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
948 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
950 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
952 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
954 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
955 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
956 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
957 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
958 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
959 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
960 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
961 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
962 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
963 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
966 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
968 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
970 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
971 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
972 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
975 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
976 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
977 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
978 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
980 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
982 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
984 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
985 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
986 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
987 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
988 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
989 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
990 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
991 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
993 Around and around and around we spin,
994 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
996 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
998 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
1000 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
1001 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
1002 your cat grins like that?'
1004 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
1006 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
1007 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
1008 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
1010 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
1011 that cats COULD grin.'
1013 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
1015 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1017 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
1019 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
1022 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
1023 there was silence for some minutes.
1025 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1027 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
1029 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
1030 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
1031 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
1032 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
1033 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
1034 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
1036 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1038 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
1040 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
1041 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
1042 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
1043 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
1044 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1046 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
1047 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
1048 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
1049 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
1050 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
1051 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
1053 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
1055 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
1057 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1059 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
1061 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
1062 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
1063 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
1064 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
1067 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
1068 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
1069 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
1070 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
1071 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
1072 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
1073 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
1074 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1075 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
1076 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
1077 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1079 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
1080 in the world she was to get out again.
1082 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
1084 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
1086 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
1088 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
1090 A little child, a limber elf,
1091 Singing, dancing to itself,
1092 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
1093 That always finds, and never seeks,
1094 Makes such a vision to the sight
1095 As fills a father's eyes with light;
1096 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
1097 Upon his heart, that he at last
1098 Must needs express his love's excess
1099 With words of unmeant bitterness.
1100 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
1101 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
1102 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
1103 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
1104 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
1105 At each wild word to feel within
1106 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
1107 And what, if in a world of sin
1108 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
1109 Such giddiness of heart and brain
1110 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
1111 So talks as it's most used to do.
1113 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
1115 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
1117 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
1118 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
1119 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
1120 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
1121 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
1122 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
1123 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
1124 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
1125 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
1127 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
1129 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
1131 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
1132 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
1134 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
1136 "Why ain't that work?"
1138 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
1139 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
1141 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
1143 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
1144 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
1146 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
1147 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
1148 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
1149 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
1150 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
1152 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
1154 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by Léon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
1156 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
1157 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
1158 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
1159 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
1160 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
1161 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
1162 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
1163 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
1164 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
1165 however much they're into colour.
1167 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
1169 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
1171 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
1172 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
1173 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
1174 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
1175 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
1176 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
1177 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
1178 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
1179 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Mil
1180 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
1181 for more hazardous assignment.
1183 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
1185 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
1187 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
1188 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
1189 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
1190 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
1191 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
1192 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
1193 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
1194 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
1195 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
1196 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
1197 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
1200 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1202 L<Announced on 2009-09-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
1204 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
1205 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
1206 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
1207 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
1208 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
1209 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
1210 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
1211 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
1212 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
1213 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
1215 'Can they all type?' I joked.
1217 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
1218 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
1220 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
1221 'We could have opened an agency.'
1223 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
1224 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
1225 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
1226 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
1228 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
1229 replied. 'Not quite all.'
1231 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
1233 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
1235 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
1237 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
1239 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1241 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
1243 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
1244 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
1245 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
1246 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
1247 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
1248 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
1249 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
1251 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1253 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
1255 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1257 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
1259 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
1261 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
1262 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
1264 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
1266 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
1268 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
1270 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
1272 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
1274 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20050401150702.2b4a70d5@grubert.mandrakesoft.com>
1276 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
1277 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
1278 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
1279 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
1280 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
1281 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
1282 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
1283 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
1284 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
1285 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
1286 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
1287 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
1288 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
1289 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
1290 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
1292 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
1293 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
1294 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
1296 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
1297 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
1298 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
1299 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
1302 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
1304 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/8587d77c565f2d43>
1306 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
1308 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
1310 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/63a8c34385de82a1>
1312 What of October, that ambiguous month
1314 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1316 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
1318 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
1319 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
1320 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
1321 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
1322 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
1324 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
1326 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
1327 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
1329 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
1330 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
1331 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
1332 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
1334 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
1335 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
1336 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
1337 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
1338 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
1339 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
1340 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
1341 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
1343 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
1344 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
1346 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
1347 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
1348 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
1349 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
1350 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
1351 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
1352 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
1353 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
1354 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
1355 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
1357 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
1358 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
1359 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
1361 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
1362 pushing to increase the membership?
1364 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
1365 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
1366 futile and impotent it becomes.'
1368 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
1370 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
1371 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
1373 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1375 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg142422.html>
1377 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
1378 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
1379 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
1380 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
1381 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
1383 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
1384 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
1385 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
1386 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
1387 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
1390 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
1391 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
1392 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
1394 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
1395 redundancy payments as well.'
1397 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
1398 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
1400 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
1402 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1404 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
1406 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
1407 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
1408 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
1411 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
1413 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
1414 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
1415 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
1416 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
1417 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
1418 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
1419 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
1421 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
1422 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
1423 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
1424 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
1425 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
1426 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
1427 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
1428 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
1430 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
1431 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
1433 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
1434 name like Charlie Umtali?
1436 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
1437 know something about our official visitor.
1439 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
1440 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
1441 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
1442 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
1443 knew little of his background.
1445 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
1446 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
1447 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
1449 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
1453 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
1454 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
1455 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
1457 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
1458 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
1460 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
1461 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
1462 revolving door and comes out in front.'
1464 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
1466 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
1468 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
1470 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
1472 L<Announced on 2006-02-01 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/28caf52e41ebe723>
1474 It's not that easy bein' green
1475 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
1476 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
1477 Or something much more colorful like that
1479 It's not easy bein' green
1480 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
1481 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
1482 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
1485 But green's the color of Spring
1486 And green can be cool and friendly-like
1487 And green can be big like an ocean
1488 Or important like a mountain
1491 When green is all there is to be
1492 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
1493 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
1494 And I think it's what I want to be
1496 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
1498 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/d231fc554af8cc51>
1500 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
1502 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
1504 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1506 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9a545704a0062f16>
1508 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
1509 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
1512 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
1513 the wolf? What then?"
1515 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1517 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
1519 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
1520 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
1521 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
1523 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
1524 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
1525 climbed up the high stone wall.
1527 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
1528 stretched out over the wall.
1530 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
1531 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
1532 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
1534 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
1535 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
1537 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
1538 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
1540 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
1542 L<Announced on 2004-11-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20041128000836.GA304@Bagpuss.unfortu.net>
1544 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
1547 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
1549 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
1550 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
1551 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
1553 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
1555 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
1558 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
1559 grow up into a beehive."
1561 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
1563 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
1564 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
1565 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
1567 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
1569 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
1570 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
1571 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
1573 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
1575 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
1577 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
1579 "Hunting," said Pooh.
1583 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
1585 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
1587 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
1589 "What do you think you'll answer?"
1591 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
1592 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
1595 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
1596 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
1598 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
1600 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/68340e2e4c39222c>
1602 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
1603 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
1604 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
1605 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
1606 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
1607 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
1610 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
1611 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
1612 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
1613 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
1614 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
1615 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
1616 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
1617 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
1618 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
1619 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
1621 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
1623 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/f92175725af7a5ad>
1625 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
1626 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
1627 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
1628 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
1629 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
1631 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
1632 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
1633 Caledonia and South America.
1635 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
1637 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/ca6ce4a7ed9f219c?pli=1>
1639 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
1640 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
1641 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
1642 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
1643 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
1644 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
1645 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
1647 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
1648 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
1649 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
1650 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
1652 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
1653 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
1654 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
1655 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
1657 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
1658 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
1660 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
1662 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/c7333acf03ef4015>
1664 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
1665 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
1666 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
1667 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
1669 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
1670 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
1671 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
1672 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
1673 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
1674 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
1675 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
1676 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
1678 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
1679 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
1682 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
1684 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/84f6fdd73cc56a1b>
1686 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
1687 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
1688 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
1689 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1691 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
1692 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
1693 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
1694 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1695 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
1696 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
1698 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
1700 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e500353440769ebf>
1702 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
1703 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
1704 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
1705 We must find him of the train can't start.'
1706 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
1707 They are searching high and low,
1708 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
1709 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
1710 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
1711 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
1712 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
1713 He's been busy in the luggage van!
1714 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
1715 And the the signal goes 'All Clear!'
1716 And we're off at last of the northern part
1717 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
1719 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
1721 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/968fb8d71e23af69>
1723 We are the music makers,
1724 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
1725 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
1726 And sitting by desolate streams; --
1727 World-losers and world-forsakers,
1728 On whom the pale moon gleams:
1729 Yet we are the movers and shakers
1730 Of the world for ever, it seems.
1732 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
1734 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/5ced50bebcd11c96>
1736 There may be trouble ahead,
1737 But while there's music and moonlight,
1738 And love and romance,
1739 Let's face the music and dance.
1741 Before the fiddlers have fled,
1742 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
1743 And while we still have that chance,
1744 Let's face the music and dance.
1746 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
1747 Humming a different tune, and then,
1749 There may be teardrops to shed,
1750 So while there's music and moonlight,
1751 And love and romance,
1752 Let's face the music and dance.
1754 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
1756 L<Announced on 2003-11-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/4714574f93967673>
1758 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
1759 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
1760 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
1761 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
1762 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
1763 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
1765 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
1766 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
1767 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
1768 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
1771 O farther farther sail!
1772 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
1773 O farther, farther, farther sail!
1775 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
1777 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/7669de5804b792f6>
1779 It's fun to charter an accountant
1780 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
1781 To find, explore the funds offshore
1782 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
1784 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
1786 L<Announced on 2003-10-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83680ef3bbf7378d>
1788 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
1789 In a Sieve they went to sea:
1790 In spite of all their friends could say,
1791 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
1792 In a Sieve they went to sea!
1793 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
1794 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
1795 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
1796 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
1797 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
1799 Far and few, far and few,
1800 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
1801 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
1802 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
1804 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
1806 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
1808 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
1810 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
1812 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
1813 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
1814 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
1815 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
1816 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
1818 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1820 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
1822 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
1823 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
1824 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
1825 then you can be my most trusted minister."
1827 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1829 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
1831 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
1832 a knife with a curved blade.
1834 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1836 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
1838 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
1839 me because I've got magic aaargh."
1841 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1843 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
1845 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
1846 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
1849 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
1850 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
1851 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
1852 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
1853 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
1854 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
1856 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1858 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
1860 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
1861 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
1862 said the low priest.
1863 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
1864 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
1865 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
1866 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
1867 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
1868 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
1869 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
1870 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
1871 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
1872 said the High Priest.
1873 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
1874 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
1875 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
1876 There were footsteps again.
1878 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
1880 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
1882 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1884 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
1886 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1888 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
1890 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1892 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
1894 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
1895 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
1896 got there first, and is waiting for it.
1898 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
1900 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
1902 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
1903 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
1904 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
1905 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
1906 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
1908 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
1910 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
1912 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
1914 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
1916 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
1917 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
1918 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
1919 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
1920 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
1921 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
1922 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
1923 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
1924 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
1925 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
1927 "All that?" said Twoflower.
1931 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
1933 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
1935 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
1936 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
1937 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
1939 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1941 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/deb8cb9ad918716f>
1943 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
1944 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
1945 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
1946 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
1947 long in this instance.
1949 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1951 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e3d4acc7a8dd3ce5>
1953 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
1955 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
1957 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
1959 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
1960 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
1963 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
1964 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
1966 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
1967 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
1970 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
1971 my precious, three guesseses.'
1973 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
1975 L<Announced on 2001-08-04 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
1977 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
1979 No announcement available.
1981 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
1983 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
1985 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
1987 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
1989 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
1991 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
1993 The dragon is withered,
1994 His bones are now crumbled;
1995 His armour is shivered,
1996 His splendour is humbled!
1997 Though sword shall be rusted,
1998 And throne and crown perish
1999 With strength that men trusted
2000 And wealth that they cherish,
2001 Here grass is still growing,
2002 And leaves are a yet swinging,
2003 The white water flowing,
2004 And elves are yet singing
2005 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
2006 Come back to the valley.
2008 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2010 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
2012 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
2014 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
2016 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
2018 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6c240ad0b189cb47>
2020 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
2022 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83e5421124a7b49d>
2024 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
2025 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
2026 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
2027 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
2028 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
2029 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
2030 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
2031 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
2032 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
2033 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
2036 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2038 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6aaeb6ec699bd116>
2040 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
2041 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
2042 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
2043 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
2044 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
2045 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
2046 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
2047 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
2048 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
2049 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
2052 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
2054 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9281dc6194d15940>
2056 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2058 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
2059 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
2060 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>