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 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden - September 1, 1939
22 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo
23 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-05/msg00728.html>
26 To undo the folded lie,
27 The romantic lie in the brain
28 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
29 And the lie of Authority
30 Whose buildings grope the sky:
31 There is no such thing as the State
32 And no one exists alone;
33 Hunger allows no choice
34 To the citizen or the police;
35 We must love one another or die.
37 -- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
39 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
41 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by
42 Abigail|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/184824>
44 How many roads must a man walk down
45 Before you call him a man?
46 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
47 Before she sleeps in the sand?
48 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
49 Before they're forever banned?
50 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
51 The answer is blowin' in the wind
53 How many years can a mountain exist
54 Before it's washed to the sea?
55 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
56 Before they're allowed to be free?
57 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
58 Pretending he just doesn't see?
59 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
60 The answer is blowin' in the wind
62 How many times must a man look up
63 Before he can see the sky?
64 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
65 Before he can hear people cry?
66 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
67 That too many people have died?
68 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
69 The answer is blowin' in the wind
71 -- Bob Dylan, Spring 1962
73 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF - The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way
75 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max
76 Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
78 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
79 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
80 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
81 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
82 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
84 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
85 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
86 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
87 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
88 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
89 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
90 Top for more than one week.
92 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
93 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
94 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
95 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
96 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
97 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
98 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
100 "I'm never going to give you up"
102 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, The Voyage of QV66
104 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams
105 |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
107 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
109 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
110 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
111 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
112 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
115 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
116 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
117 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
118 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
119 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
120 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
121 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
122 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
123 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
124 down cheering and applauding.
126 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
128 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea
130 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave
131 Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
133 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
134 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
135 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
136 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
137 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
138 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
140 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
141 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
142 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
143 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
144 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
145 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
146 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
147 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
149 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman
151 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve
152 Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
154 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
155 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
156 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
157 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
158 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
159 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
160 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
161 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
162 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
163 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
164 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
165 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
166 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
167 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
168 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
169 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
170 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
171 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
172 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
173 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
174 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
176 -- Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman,
177 trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
179 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
181 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian
182 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
184 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
185 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
186 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
187 the human experience, the better design we will have.
189 =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 >>
191 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian
192 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
195 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
196 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
197 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
198 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
199 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
200 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
202 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
203 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
204 the heart of the programmer.
207 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, All Art is Quite Useless
209 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan
210 Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
212 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
213 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
214 do so at their peril.
216 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
217 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
218 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
219 artist is in accord with himself.
221 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
222 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
223 thing is that one admires it intensely.
225 All art is quite useless.
227 -- Oscar Wilde, From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
230 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Third Duina Elegy
232 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo
233 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-08/msg00694.html>
235 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
236 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
237 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
238 things the significance of a human future;
239 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
240 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
241 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
242 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
243 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
244 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
245 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
246 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
247 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
248 hurtles all ages along with it forever
249 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
251 -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino, The First Elegy
252 trans., C. F. MacIntyre
254 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
256 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
258 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
259 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
260 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
261 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
262 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
263 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
264 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
266 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
267 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
268 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
269 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
270 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
273 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
274 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
277 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
279 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
281 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all
282 you will have gained.
284 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
286 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
288 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
289 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
290 When breakfast is taken away,
291 To turn his attention to dinner;
292 And it's not in the range of belief,
293 To look upon him as a glutton,
294 Who, when he is tired of beef,
295 Determines to tackle the mutton.
296 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
297 If it will appease her sorrow,
298 I'll marry this lady today,
299 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
301 =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 >>
303 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
305 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
306 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
307 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
308 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
309 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
310 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
311 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
312 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
313 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
315 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
317 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
319 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
320 Tolerates no work of man.
321 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
322 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
323 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
324 While the last larks sing and soar,
325 From the heather-blossoms sweet
326 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
327 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
328 Eleanor makes macaroons!
330 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
332 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
334 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
335 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
336 Lobster I freely endorse,
337 In pate or patty or pasty.
338 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
339 And nothing the matter with jam,
340 And the warmest greetings I utter
341 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
344 And I think very fondly of food.
345 Through I'm broody at times
346 When bothered by rhymes,
350 =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 >>
352 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
354 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
355 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
356 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
357 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
358 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
359 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
361 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
362 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
363 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
364 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
365 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
366 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
367 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
369 So a freely distributable program is born.
371 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
373 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
375 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
376 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
377 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
378 and your bags will be offloaded.
380 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, Fordlandia, "the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
382 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
384 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
385 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
386 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
387 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
388 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
389 down their paved streets.
391 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
392 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
393 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
394 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
395 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
396 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
398 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
400 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
402 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
403 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
404 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
405 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
406 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
407 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
408 This seemed doubly astounding to meE<0x2014>first that Australia could
409 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
410 this had never reached me.
412 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<Leaves of Grass|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
414 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-03/msg00560.html>
416 When the full-grown poet came,
417 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
418 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
419 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
420 Nay he is mine alone;
421 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
423 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands,
424 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
425 And wholly and joyously blends them.
427 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
429 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
431 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
433 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
434 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
436 tíu launstafi ristna.
438 langs ofrtrega fengit.
440 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
442 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
444 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
445 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
446 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
447 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
448 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
449 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
450 that fire can truly light the world.
452 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
453 ask what you can do for your country.
455 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
456 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
458 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
459 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
460 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
461 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
462 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
463 work must truly be our own.
465 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
467 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
469 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
470 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
471 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
472 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
473 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
474 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
475 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
476 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
477 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
478 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
481 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
482 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
483 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
484 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
485 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
486 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
488 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
490 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
492 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
496 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
498 Trinity: What did you just say?
499 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
500 Trinity: What did you see?
501 Cypher: What happened?
502 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
503 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
504 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
505 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
507 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
509 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
511 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
513 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
516 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
517 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
518 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
521 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
522 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
524 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
525 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
528 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
530 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
532 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
534 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
535 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
536 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
537 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
538 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
539 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
540 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
541 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
542 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
543 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
545 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
546 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
547 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
548 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
549 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
550 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
552 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
553 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
554 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
555 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
558 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
560 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
562 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
563 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
564 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
565 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
567 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
568 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
569 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
570 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
573 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
575 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
578 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
579 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
581 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
583 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
585 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
586 with his nose, you know?'
588 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
589 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
591 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
593 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
595 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
596 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
597 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
598 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
599 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
601 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
602 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
603 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
604 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
605 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
606 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
607 had ever even been a car.
609 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
610 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
611 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
612 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
615 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
616 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
617 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
618 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
620 It should have fallen apart miles back.
622 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
624 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
626 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
627 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
628 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
629 there exist ... special circumstances.
631 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
633 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
635 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
636 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
637 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
638 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
639 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
640 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
641 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
643 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
645 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
647 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
648 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
649 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
650 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
651 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
652 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
653 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
655 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
656 volcano were once more to set to work."
658 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
660 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
662 I saw a huge steam roller,
663 It blotted out the sun.
664 The people all lay down, lay down;
665 They did not try to run.
666 My love and I, we looked amazed
667 Upon the gory mystery.
668 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
669 'The great machine is history!'
670 My love and I, we ran away,
671 The engine did not find us.
672 We ran up to a mountain top,
673 Left history far behind us.
674 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
675 But somehow we don't think so.
676 We went to see where history'd been,
677 And my, the dead did stink so.
679 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
681 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
683 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
684 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
685 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
687 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
688 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
689 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
690 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
691 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
692 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
693 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
694 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
696 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
698 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
700 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
701 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
702 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
703 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
704 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
705 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
706 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
707 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
708 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
709 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
710 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
712 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
714 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
716 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
717 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
718 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
719 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
720 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
721 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
722 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
723 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
724 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
725 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
728 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
730 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
732 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
733 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
734 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
737 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
738 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
739 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
740 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
742 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
744 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
746 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
747 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
748 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
749 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
750 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
751 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
752 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
753 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
755 Around and around and around we spin,
756 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
758 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
760 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
762 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
763 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
764 your cat grins like that?'
766 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
768 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
769 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
770 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
772 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
773 that cats COULD grin.'
775 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
777 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
779 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
781 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
784 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
785 there was silence for some minutes.
787 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
789 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
791 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
792 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
793 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
794 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
795 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
796 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
798 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
800 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
802 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
803 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
804 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
805 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
806 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
808 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
809 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
810 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
811 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
812 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
813 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
815 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
817 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
819 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
821 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
823 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
824 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
825 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
826 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
829 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
830 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
831 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
832 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
833 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
834 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
835 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
836 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
837 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
838 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
839 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
841 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
842 in the world she was to get out again.
844 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
846 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
848 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
850 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
852 A little child, a limber elf,
853 Singing, dancing to itself,
854 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
855 That always finds, and never seeks,
856 Makes such a vision to the sight
857 As fills a father's eyes with light;
858 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
859 Upon his heart, that he at last
860 Must needs express his love's excess
861 With words of unmeant bitterness.
862 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
863 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
864 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
865 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
866 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
867 At each wild word to feel within
868 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
869 And what, if in a world of sin
870 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
871 Such giddiness of heart and brain
872 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
873 So talks as it's most used to do.
875 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
877 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
879 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
880 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
881 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
882 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
883 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
884 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
885 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
886 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
887 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
889 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
891 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
893 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
894 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
896 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
898 "Why ain't that work?"
900 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
901 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
903 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
905 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
906 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
908 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
909 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
910 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
911 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
912 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
914 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
916 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
918 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
919 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
920 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
921 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
922 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
923 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
924 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
925 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
926 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
927 however much they're into colour.
929 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
931 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
933 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
934 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
935 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
936 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
937 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
938 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
939 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
940 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
941 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Mil
942 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
943 for more hazardous assignment.
945 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
947 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
949 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
950 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
951 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
952 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
953 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
954 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
955 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
956 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
957 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
958 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
959 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
962 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
964 L<Announced on 2009-09-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
966 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
967 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
968 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
969 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
970 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
971 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
972 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
973 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
974 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
975 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
977 'Can they all type?' I joked.
979 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
980 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
982 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
983 'We could have opened an agency.'
985 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
986 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
987 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
988 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
990 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
991 replied. 'Not quite all.'
993 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
995 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
997 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
999 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
1001 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1003 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
1005 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
1006 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
1007 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
1008 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
1009 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
1010 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
1011 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
1013 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1015 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
1017 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1019 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
1021 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
1023 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
1024 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
1026 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
1028 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
1030 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
1032 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
1034 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
1036 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20050401150702.2b4a70d5@grubert.mandrakesoft.com>
1038 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
1039 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
1040 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
1041 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
1042 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
1043 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
1044 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
1045 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
1046 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
1047 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
1048 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
1049 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
1050 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
1051 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
1052 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
1054 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
1055 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
1056 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
1058 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
1059 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
1060 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
1061 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
1064 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
1066 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/8587d77c565f2d43>
1068 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
1070 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
1072 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/63a8c34385de82a1>
1074 What of October, that ambiguous month
1076 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1078 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
1080 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
1081 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
1082 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
1083 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
1084 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
1086 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
1088 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
1089 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
1091 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
1092 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
1093 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
1094 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
1096 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
1097 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
1098 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
1099 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
1100 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
1101 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
1102 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
1103 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
1105 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
1106 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
1108 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
1109 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
1110 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
1111 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
1112 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
1113 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
1114 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
1115 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
1116 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
1117 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
1119 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
1120 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
1121 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
1123 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
1124 pushing to increase the membership?
1126 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
1127 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
1128 futile and impotent it becomes.'
1130 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
1132 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
1133 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
1135 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1137 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg142422.html>
1139 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
1140 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
1141 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
1142 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
1143 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
1145 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
1146 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
1147 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
1148 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
1149 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
1152 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
1153 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
1154 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
1156 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
1157 redundancy payments as well.'
1159 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
1160 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
1162 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
1164 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1166 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
1168 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
1169 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
1170 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
1173 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
1175 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
1176 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
1177 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
1178 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
1179 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
1180 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
1181 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
1183 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
1184 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
1185 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
1186 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
1187 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
1188 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
1189 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
1190 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
1192 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
1193 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
1195 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
1196 name like Charlie Umtali?
1198 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
1199 know something about our official visitor.
1201 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
1202 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
1203 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
1204 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
1205 knew little of his background.
1207 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
1208 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
1209 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
1211 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
1215 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
1216 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
1217 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
1219 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
1220 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
1222 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
1223 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
1224 revolving door and comes out in front.'
1226 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
1228 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
1230 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
1232 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
1234 L<Announced on 2006-02-01 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/28caf52e41ebe723>
1236 It's not that easy bein' green
1237 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
1238 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
1239 Or something much more colorful like that
1241 It's not easy bein' green
1242 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
1243 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
1244 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
1247 But green's the color of Spring
1248 And green can be cool and friendly-like
1249 And green can be big like an ocean
1250 Or important like a mountain
1253 When green is all there is to be
1254 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
1255 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
1256 And I think it's what I want to be
1258 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
1260 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/d231fc554af8cc51>
1262 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
1264 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
1266 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1268 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9a545704a0062f16>
1270 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
1271 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
1274 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
1275 the wolf? What then?"
1277 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1279 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
1281 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
1282 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
1283 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
1285 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
1286 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
1287 climbed up the high stone wall.
1289 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
1290 stretched out over the wall.
1292 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
1293 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
1294 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
1296 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
1297 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
1299 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
1300 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
1302 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
1304 L<Announced on 2004-11-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20041128000836.GA304@Bagpuss.unfortu.net>
1306 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
1309 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
1311 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
1312 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
1313 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
1315 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
1317 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
1320 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
1321 grow up into a beehive."
1323 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
1325 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
1326 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
1327 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
1329 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
1331 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
1332 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
1333 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
1335 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
1337 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
1339 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
1341 "Hunting," said Pooh.
1345 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
1347 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
1349 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
1351 "What do you think you'll answer?"
1353 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
1354 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
1357 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
1358 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
1360 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
1362 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/68340e2e4c39222c>
1364 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
1365 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
1366 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
1367 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
1368 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
1369 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
1372 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
1373 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
1374 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
1375 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
1376 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
1377 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
1378 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
1379 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
1380 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
1381 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
1383 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
1385 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/f92175725af7a5ad>
1387 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
1388 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
1389 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
1390 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
1391 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
1393 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
1394 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
1395 Caledonia and South America.
1397 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
1399 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/ca6ce4a7ed9f219c?pli=1>
1401 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
1402 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
1403 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
1404 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
1405 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
1406 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
1407 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
1409 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
1410 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
1411 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
1412 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
1414 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
1415 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
1416 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
1417 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
1419 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
1420 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
1422 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
1424 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/c7333acf03ef4015>
1426 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
1427 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
1428 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
1429 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
1431 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
1432 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
1433 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
1434 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
1435 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
1436 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
1437 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
1438 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
1440 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
1441 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
1444 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
1446 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/84f6fdd73cc56a1b>
1448 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
1449 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
1450 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
1451 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1453 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
1454 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
1455 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
1456 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1457 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
1458 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
1460 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
1462 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e500353440769ebf>
1464 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
1465 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
1466 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
1467 We must find him of the train can't start.'
1468 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
1469 They are searching high and low,
1470 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
1471 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
1472 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
1473 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
1474 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
1475 He's been busy in the luggage van!
1476 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
1477 And the the signal goes 'All Clear!'
1478 And we're off at last of the northern part
1479 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
1481 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
1483 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/968fb8d71e23af69>
1485 We are the music makers,
1486 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
1487 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
1488 And sitting by desolate streams; --
1489 World-losers and world-forsakers,
1490 On whom the pale moon gleams:
1491 Yet we are the movers and shakers
1492 Of the world for ever, it seems.
1494 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
1496 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/5ced50bebcd11c96>
1498 There may be trouble ahead,
1499 But while there's music and moonlight,
1500 And love and romance,
1501 Let's face the music and dance.
1503 Before the fiddlers have fled,
1504 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
1505 And while we still have that chance,
1506 Let's face the music and dance.
1508 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
1509 Humming a different tune, and then,
1511 There may be teardrops to shed,
1512 So while there's music and moonlight,
1513 And love and romance,
1514 Let's face the music and dance.
1516 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
1518 L<Announced on 2003-11-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/4714574f93967673>
1520 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
1521 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
1522 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
1523 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
1524 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
1525 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
1527 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
1528 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
1529 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
1530 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
1533 O farther farther sail!
1534 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
1535 O farther, farther, farther sail!
1537 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
1539 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/7669de5804b792f6>
1541 It's fun to charter an accountant
1542 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
1543 To find, explore the funds offshore
1544 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
1546 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
1548 L<Announced on 2003-10-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83680ef3bbf7378d>
1550 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
1551 In a Sieve they went to sea:
1552 In spite of all their friends could say,
1553 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
1554 In a Sieve they went to sea!
1555 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
1556 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
1557 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
1558 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
1559 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
1561 Far and few, far and few,
1562 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
1563 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
1564 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
1566 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
1568 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
1570 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
1572 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
1574 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
1575 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
1576 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
1577 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
1578 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
1580 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1582 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
1584 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
1585 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
1586 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
1587 then you can be my most trusted minister."
1589 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1591 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
1593 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
1594 a knife with a curved blade.
1596 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1598 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
1600 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
1601 me because I've got magic aaargh."
1603 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1605 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
1607 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
1608 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
1611 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
1612 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
1613 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
1614 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
1615 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
1616 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
1618 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1620 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
1622 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
1623 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
1624 said the low priest.
1625 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
1626 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
1627 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
1628 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
1629 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
1630 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
1631 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
1632 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
1633 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
1634 said the High Priest.
1635 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
1636 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
1637 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
1638 There were footsteps again.
1640 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
1642 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
1644 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1646 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
1648 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1650 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
1652 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1654 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
1656 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
1657 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
1658 got there first, and is waiting for it.
1660 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
1662 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
1664 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
1665 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
1666 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
1667 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
1668 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
1670 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
1672 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
1674 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
1676 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
1678 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
1679 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
1680 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
1681 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
1682 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
1683 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
1684 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
1685 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
1686 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
1687 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
1689 "All that?" said Twoflower.
1693 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
1695 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
1697 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
1698 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
1699 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
1701 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1703 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/deb8cb9ad918716f>
1705 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
1706 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
1707 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
1708 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
1709 long in this instance.
1711 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1713 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e3d4acc7a8dd3ce5>
1715 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
1717 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
1719 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
1721 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
1722 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
1725 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
1726 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
1728 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
1729 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
1732 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
1733 my precious, three guesseses.'
1735 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
1737 L<Announced on 2001-08-04 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
1739 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
1741 No announcement available.
1743 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
1745 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
1747 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
1749 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
1751 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
1753 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
1755 The dragon is withered,
1756 His bones are now crumbled;
1757 His armour is shivered,
1758 His splendour is humbled!
1759 Though sword shall be rusted,
1760 And throne and crown perish
1761 With strength that men trusted
1762 And wealth that they cherish,
1763 Here grass is still growing,
1764 And leaves are a yet swinging,
1765 The white water flowing,
1766 And elves are yet singing
1767 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
1768 Come back to the valley.
1770 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
1772 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
1774 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
1776 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
1778 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
1780 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6c240ad0b189cb47>
1782 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
1784 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83e5421124a7b49d>
1786 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
1787 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
1788 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
1789 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
1790 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
1791 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
1792 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
1793 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
1794 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
1795 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
1798 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1800 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6aaeb6ec699bd116>
1802 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
1803 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
1804 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
1805 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
1806 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
1807 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
1808 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
1809 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
1810 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
1811 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
1814 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
1816 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9281dc6194d15940>
1818 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1820 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
1821 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
1822 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>