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 v5.17.7 - R. Scott Bakker, The Darkness That Comes Before
22 L<Announced on 2012-12-18 by Dave Rolsky|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-12/msg00679.html>
25 The boy extinguished. Only a place.
27 Motionless, the Pragma sat facing him, the bare soles of his feet flat against each other, his dark frock scored by the shadows of deep folds, his eyes as empty as the child they watched.
28 A place without breath or sound. A place of sight alone. A place without before or after . . . almost.
29 For the first lances of sunlight careered over the glacier, as ponderous as great tree limbs in the wind. Shadows hardened and light gleamed across the Pragma’s ancient skull.
30 The old man’s left hand forsook his right sleeve, bearing a watery knife. And like a rope in water, his arm pitched outward, fingertips trailing across the blade as the knife swung languidly into the air, the sun skating and the dark shrine plunging across its mirror back . . .
31 And the place where Kellhus had once existed extended an open hand—the blond hairs like luminous filaments against tanned skin—and grasped the knife from stunned space.
32 The slap of pommel against palm triggered the collapse of place into little boy. The pale stench of his body. Breath, sound, and lurching thoughts.
33 I have been legion . . .
34 In his periphery, he could see the spike of the sun ease from the mountain. He felt drunk with exhaustion. In the recoil of his trance, it seemed all he could hear were the twigs arching and bobbing in the wind, pulled by leaves like a million sails no bigger than his hand. Cause everywhere, but amid countless minute happenings—diffuse, useless.
37 =head2 v5.17.6 - Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
39 L<Announced on 2012-11-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00760.html>
41 Beatrice, looking like a gypsy queen, smoldered at the foot of a statue
42 of a young physical student. At first glance, the laboratory-gowned
43 scientist seemed to be a perfect servant of nothing but truth. At first
44 glance, one was convinced that nothing but truth could please him as he
45 beamed at his test tube. At first glance, one thought that he was as
46 much above the beastly concerns of mankind as the harmoniums in the
47 caves of Mercury. There, at first glance, was a young man without
48 vanity, without lust — and one accepted at its face value the title Salo
49 had engraved on the statue, "Discovery of Atomic Power."
51 =head2 v5.12.5 - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
53 Announced on 2012-11-10 by Dominic Hargreaves
55 Music oft hath such a charm
56 To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
58 =head2 v5.16.2 - Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad, Trurl's Machine
60 L<Announced on 2012-11-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00017.html>
62 Once upon a time Trurl the constructor built an eight-story thinking
63 machine. When it was finished, he gave it a coat of white paint,
64 trimmed the edges in lavender, stepped back, squinted, then added a
65 little curlicue on the front and, where one might imagine the forehead
66 to be, a few pale orange polkadots. Extremely pleased with himself,
67 he whistled an air and, as is always done on such occasions, asked it
68 the ritual question of how much is two plus two.
70 The machine stirred. Its tubes began to glow, its coils warmed up,
71 current coursed through all its circuits like a waterfall,
72 transformers hummed and throbbed, there was a clanging, and a
73 chugging, and such an ungodly racket that Trurl began to think of
74 adding a special mentation muffler. Meanwhile the machine labored on,
75 as if it had been given the most difficult problem in the Universe to
76 solve; the ground shook, the sand slid underfoot from the vibration,
77 valves popped like champagne corks, the relays nearly gave way under
78 the strain. At last, when Trurl had grown extremely impatient, the
79 machine ground to a halt and said in a voice like thunder: SEVEN!
81 =head2 v5.17.5 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
83 L<Announced on 2012-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-10/msg01007.html>
85 Neither of them noticed the pair of polka-dotted knickers hiding
86 behind the ventilation duct overhead, listening patiently and
89 =head2 v5.17.4 - Roald Dahl, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
91 L<Announced on 2012-09-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-09/msg01226.html>
93 The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
94 She whips a pistol from her knickers.
95 She aims it at the creature's head,
96 And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
98 A few weeks later, in the wood,
99 I came across Miss Riding Hood.
100 But what a change! No cloak of red,
101 No silly hood upon her head.
102 She said, "Hello, and do please note
103 My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
105 =head2 v5.17.3 - Kris Ta-belle, "Smoked Perl Onion Soup"
107 L<Announced on 2012-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190775.html>
111 Cut 16 Perl Onions into quarters and put them in a grill smoker rack
112 or a perforated pan over a BBQ using hickory wood chips or Special
113 Blend Smoker Bisquettes. Smoke them for an hour and remove once they
115 Let them cool and put them in the fridge (or freezer) until you are
116 ready to create the soup.
120 16 diced, pre-smoked, Perl Onions
123 2 small garlic cloves, finely minced
126 black pepper to taste
128 1/4 cup all purpose flour
129 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
130 1 cup of thick cream (milk can be used as a substitute)
134 Melt the butter in a pan and then add olive oil.
135 Heat and add the onions to caramelize over a medium-high heat for up
137 Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
138 Add the salt, pepper and sugar.
139 Now add the red wine and reduce to a jam like consistency.
140 Add the flour, stir well and add the stock a cup at a time.
141 Simmer for 30 minutes, add the cream and heat to almost boiling.
145 =head2 v5.17.2 - Terry Pratchet, "The Colour of Magic"
147 L<Announced on 2012-07-21 by TonyC|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/07/msg189828.html>
149 ‘I knew it,’ said Rincewind. ‘We're in a strong magical field.’
151 Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made
152 their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
154 The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow
155 butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme
156 and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
158 Hrun shrugged and went back to oiling his biceps. They gleamed.
160 ‘Looks alright to me,’ he said.
162 ‘Try tossing a coin,’ said Rincewind.
166 ‘Go on. Toss a coin.’
168 ‘Hokay,’ said Hrun. 'If that gives you any pleasure.’ He reached into
169 his pouch and withdrew a handful of loose change plundered from a
170 dozen realms. With some care he selected a Zchloty leaden
171 quarter-iotum and balanced it on a purple thumbnail.
173 ‘You call,’ he said. ‘Heads or—’ he inspected the obverse with
174 an air of intense concentration, ‘some sort of a fish with legs.’
176 ‘When it's in the air,’ said Rincewind. Hrun grinned and flicked his thumb.
178 The iotum rose, spinning.
180 ‘Edge,’ said Rincewind, without looking at it.
182 =head2 v5.17.1 - Rand Miller, "Myst: The Book of Ti'ana"
184 L<Announced on 2012-06-20 by doy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/06/msg188354.html>
186 On their return from Ko'ah, Aitrus had shown her the Book, patiently
187 taking her through page after page, and showing her how such an Age was
188 "made." She had seen at once the differences between this archaic form
189 and the ordinary written speech of the D'ni, noting how it was not
190 merely more elaborate but more specific: a language of precise yet
191 subtle descriptive power. Yet seeing was one thing, believing another.
192 Given all the evidence, her rational mind still fought against accepting
195 =head2 v5.17.0 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
197 L<Announced on 2012-05-26 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg187214.html>
199 `Welcome, comrades!' Burya opened his arms toward the soldier.
200 `Yes it is true! With help from our allies of the Festival, the iron
201 hand of the reactionary junta is about to be overthrown for all time!
202 The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has
203 been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can
204 be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination,
205 to each according to his needs! Join us or better still, bring your
206 fellow soldiers and workers to join us!'
208 There was a sharp bang from the roof of the Corn Exchange, right at the
209 climax of his impromptu speech; heads turned in alarm. Something had
210 broken inside the spork factory and a stream of rainbow-hued plastic
211 implements fountained toward the sky and clattered to the cobblestones
212 on every side, like a harbinger of the postindustrial society to come.
213 Workers and peasants alike stared in open-mouthed bewilderment at this
214 astounding display of productivity, then bent to scrabble in the muck
215 for the brightly colored sporks of revolution. A volley of shots rang
216 out and Burya Rubenstein raised his hands, grinning wildly, to accept
217 the salute of the soldiers from the Skull Hill garrison.
219 =head2 v5.16.1 - Emerald Rose - Never Split The Party
221 L<Announced on 2012-08-08 by Ricardo
222 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00307.html>
224 Don't you know? You never split the party
225 Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty
226 The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light
227 And you never let that damn thief out of sight…
229 -- Emerald Rose, Never Split The Party
231 =head2 v5.16.1 RC1 - Tom Moldvay - Dungeons & Dragons
233 L<Announced on 2012-08-03 by Ricardo
234 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00157.html>
236 I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up.
237 Fifty feed of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes.
238 Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers.
239 The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.
243 I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The
244 sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow
245 collection of precious gems. I shouted my battle cry and charged
247 My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut
248 inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The
249 swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other
250 side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet.
251 The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the
252 dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.
254 -- Tom Moldvay, Foreward to the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook
256 =head2 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden - September 1, 1939
258 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo
259 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-05/msg00728.html>
261 All I have is a voice
262 To undo the folded lie,
263 The romantic lie in the brain
264 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
265 And the lie of Authority
266 Whose buildings grope the sky:
267 There is no such thing as the State
268 And no one exists alone;
269 Hunger allows no choice
270 To the citizen or the police;
271 We must love one another or die.
273 -- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
275 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
277 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by
278 Abigail|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/184824>
280 How many roads must a man walk down
281 Before you call him a man?
282 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
283 Before she sleeps in the sand?
284 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
285 Before they're forever banned?
286 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
287 The answer is blowin' in the wind
289 How many years can a mountain exist
290 Before it's washed to the sea?
291 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
292 Before they're allowed to be free?
293 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
294 Pretending he just doesn't see?
295 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
296 The answer is blowin' in the wind
298 How many times must a man look up
299 Before he can see the sky?
300 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
301 Before he can hear people cry?
302 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
303 That too many people have died?
304 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
305 The answer is blowin' in the wind
307 -- Bob Dylan, Spring 1962
309 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF - The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way
311 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max
312 Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
314 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
315 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
316 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
317 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
318 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
320 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
321 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
322 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
323 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
324 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
325 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
326 Top for more than one week.
328 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
329 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
330 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
331 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
332 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
333 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
334 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
336 "I'm never going to give you up"
338 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, The Voyage of QV66
340 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams
341 |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
343 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
345 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
346 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
347 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
348 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
351 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
352 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
353 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
354 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
355 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
356 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
357 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
358 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
359 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
360 down cheering and applauding.
362 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
364 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea
366 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave
367 Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
369 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
370 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
371 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
372 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
373 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
374 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
376 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
377 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
378 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
379 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
380 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
381 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
382 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
383 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
385 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman
387 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve
388 Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
390 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
391 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
392 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
393 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
394 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
395 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
396 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
397 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
398 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
399 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
400 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
401 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
402 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
403 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
404 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
405 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
406 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
407 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
408 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
409 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
410 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
412 -- Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman,
413 trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
415 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
417 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian
418 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
420 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
421 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
422 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
423 the human experience, the better design we will have.
425 =head2 v5.14.3 - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
427 L<Announced on 2012-10-12 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194057.html>
429 The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all
430 this time there was not any man died in his own person,
431 videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed
432 out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die
433 before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he
434 would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned
435 nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good
436 youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
437 being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish
438 coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these
439 are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have
440 eaten them, but not for love.
442 -- As You Like It, William Shakespeare
444 =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 >>
446 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian
447 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
450 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
451 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
452 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
453 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
454 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
455 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
457 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
458 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
459 the heart of the programmer.
462 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, All Art is Quite Useless
464 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan
465 Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
467 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
468 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
469 do so at their peril.
471 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
472 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
473 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
474 artist is in accord with himself.
476 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
477 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
478 thing is that one admires it intensely.
480 All art is quite useless.
482 -- Oscar Wilde, From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
485 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Third Duina Elegy
487 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo
488 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-08/msg00694.html>
490 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
491 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
492 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
493 things the significance of a human future;
494 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
495 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
496 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
497 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
498 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
499 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
500 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
501 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
502 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
503 hurtles all ages along with it forever
504 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
506 -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino, The First Elegy
507 trans., C. F. MacIntyre
509 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
511 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
513 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
514 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
515 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
516 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
517 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
518 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
519 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
521 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
522 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
523 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
524 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
525 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
528 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
529 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
532 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
534 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
536 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all
537 you will have gained.
539 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
541 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
543 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
544 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
545 When breakfast is taken away,
546 To turn his attention to dinner;
547 And it's not in the range of belief,
548 To look upon him as a glutton,
549 Who, when he is tired of beef,
550 Determines to tackle the mutton.
551 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
552 If it will appease her sorrow,
553 I'll marry this lady today,
554 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
556 =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 >>
558 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
560 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
561 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
562 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
563 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
564 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
565 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
566 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
567 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
568 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
570 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
572 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
574 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
575 Tolerates no work of man.
576 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
577 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
578 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
579 While the last larks sing and soar,
580 From the heather-blossoms sweet
581 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
582 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
583 Eleanor makes macaroons!
585 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
587 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
589 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
590 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
591 Lobster I freely endorse,
592 In pate or patty or pasty.
593 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
594 And nothing the matter with jam,
595 And the warmest greetings I utter
596 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
599 And I think very fondly of food.
600 Through I'm broody at times
601 When bothered by rhymes,
605 =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 >>
607 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
609 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
610 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
611 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
612 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
613 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
614 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
616 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
617 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
618 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
619 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
620 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
621 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
622 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
624 So a freely distributable program is born.
626 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
628 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
630 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
631 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
632 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
633 and your bags will be offloaded.
635 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, Fordlandia, "the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
637 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
639 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
640 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
641 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
642 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
643 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
644 down their paved streets.
646 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
647 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
648 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
649 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
650 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
651 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
653 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
655 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
657 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
658 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
659 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
660 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
661 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
662 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
663 This seemed doubly astounding to meE<0x2014>first that Australia could
664 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
665 this had never reached me.
667 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<Leaves of Grass|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
669 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-03/msg00560.html>
671 When the full-grown poet came,
672 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
673 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
674 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
675 Nay he is mine alone;
676 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
678 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands,
679 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
680 And wholly and joyously blends them.
682 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
684 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
686 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
688 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
689 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
691 tíu launstafi ristna.
693 langs ofrtrega fengit.
695 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
697 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
699 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
700 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
701 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
702 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
703 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
704 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
705 that fire can truly light the world.
707 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
708 ask what you can do for your country.
710 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
711 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
713 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
714 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
715 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
716 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
717 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
718 work must truly be our own.
720 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
722 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
724 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
725 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
726 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
727 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
728 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
729 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
730 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
731 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
732 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
733 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
736 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
737 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
738 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
739 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
740 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
741 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
743 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
745 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
747 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
751 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
753 Trinity: What did you just say?
754 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
755 Trinity: What did you see?
756 Cypher: What happened?
757 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just
759 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
760 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
761 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
763 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when
764 they change something.
766 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
768 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
770 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
773 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
774 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
775 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
778 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
779 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
781 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
782 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
785 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
787 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
789 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
791 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
792 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
793 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
794 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
795 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
796 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
797 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
798 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
799 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
800 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
802 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
803 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
804 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
805 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
806 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
807 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
809 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
810 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
811 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
812 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
815 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
817 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
819 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
820 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
821 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
822 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
824 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
825 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
826 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
827 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
830 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
832 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
835 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
836 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
838 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
840 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
842 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
843 with his nose, you know?'
845 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
846 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
848 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
850 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
852 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
853 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
854 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
855 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
856 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
858 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
859 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
860 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
861 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
862 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
863 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
864 had ever even been a car.
866 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
867 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
868 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
869 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
872 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
873 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
874 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
875 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
877 It should have fallen apart miles back.
879 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
881 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
883 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
884 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
885 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
886 there exist ... special circumstances.
888 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
890 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
892 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
893 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
894 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
895 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
896 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
897 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
898 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
900 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
902 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
904 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
905 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
906 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
907 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
908 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
909 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
910 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
912 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
913 volcano were once more to set to work."
915 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
917 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
919 I saw a huge steam roller,
920 It blotted out the sun.
921 The people all lay down, lay down;
922 They did not try to run.
923 My love and I, we looked amazed
924 Upon the gory mystery.
925 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
926 'The great machine is history!'
927 My love and I, we ran away,
928 The engine did not find us.
929 We ran up to a mountain top,
930 Left history far behind us.
931 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
932 But somehow we don't think so.
933 We went to see where history'd been,
934 And my, the dead did stink so.
936 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
938 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
940 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
941 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
942 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
944 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
945 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
946 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
947 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
948 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
949 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
950 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
951 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
953 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
955 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
957 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
958 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
959 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
960 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
961 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
962 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
963 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
964 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
965 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
966 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
967 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
969 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
971 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
973 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
974 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
975 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
976 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
977 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
978 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
979 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
980 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
981 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
982 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
985 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
987 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
989 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
990 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
991 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
994 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
995 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
996 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
997 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
999 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1001 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
1003 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
1004 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
1005 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
1006 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
1007 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
1008 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
1009 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
1010 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
1012 Around and around and around we spin,
1013 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
1015 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1017 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
1019 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
1020 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
1021 your cat grins like that?'
1023 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
1025 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
1026 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
1027 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
1029 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
1030 that cats COULD grin.'
1032 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
1034 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1036 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
1038 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
1041 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
1042 there was silence for some minutes.
1044 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1046 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
1048 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
1049 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
1050 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
1051 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
1052 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
1053 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
1055 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1057 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
1059 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
1060 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
1061 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
1062 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
1063 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1065 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
1066 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
1067 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
1068 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
1069 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
1070 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
1072 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
1074 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
1076 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1078 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
1080 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
1081 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
1082 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
1083 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
1086 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
1087 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
1088 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
1089 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
1090 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
1091 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
1092 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
1093 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1094 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
1095 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
1096 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1098 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
1099 in the world she was to get out again.
1101 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
1103 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
1105 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
1107 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
1109 A little child, a limber elf,
1110 Singing, dancing to itself,
1111 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
1112 That always finds, and never seeks,
1113 Makes such a vision to the sight
1114 As fills a father's eyes with light;
1115 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
1116 Upon his heart, that he at last
1117 Must needs express his love's excess
1118 With words of unmeant bitterness.
1119 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
1120 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
1121 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
1122 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
1123 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
1124 At each wild word to feel within
1125 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
1126 And what, if in a world of sin
1127 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
1128 Such giddiness of heart and brain
1129 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
1130 So talks as it's most used to do.
1132 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
1134 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
1136 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
1137 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
1138 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
1139 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
1140 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
1141 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
1142 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
1143 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
1144 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
1146 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
1148 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
1150 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
1151 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
1153 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
1155 "Why ain't that work?"
1157 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
1158 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
1160 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
1162 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
1163 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
1165 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
1166 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
1167 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
1168 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
1169 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
1171 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
1173 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by Léon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
1175 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
1176 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
1177 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
1178 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
1179 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
1180 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
1181 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
1182 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
1183 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
1184 however much they're into colour.
1186 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
1188 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
1190 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
1191 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
1192 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
1193 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
1194 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
1195 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
1196 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
1197 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
1198 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Mil
1199 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
1200 for more hazardous assignment.
1202 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
1204 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
1206 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
1207 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
1208 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
1209 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
1210 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
1211 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
1212 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
1213 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
1214 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
1215 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
1216 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
1219 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1221 L<Announced on 2009-09-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
1223 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
1224 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
1225 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
1226 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
1227 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
1228 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
1229 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
1230 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
1231 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
1232 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
1234 'Can they all type?' I joked.
1236 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
1237 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
1239 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
1240 'We could have opened an agency.'
1242 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
1243 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
1244 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
1245 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
1247 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
1248 replied. 'Not quite all.'
1250 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
1252 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
1254 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
1256 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
1258 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1260 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
1262 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
1263 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
1264 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
1265 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
1266 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
1267 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
1268 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
1270 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1272 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
1274 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1276 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
1278 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
1280 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
1281 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
1283 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
1285 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
1287 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
1289 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
1291 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
1293 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20050401150702.2b4a70d5@grubert.mandrakesoft.com>
1295 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
1296 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
1297 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
1298 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
1299 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
1300 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
1301 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
1302 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
1303 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
1304 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
1305 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
1306 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
1307 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
1308 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
1309 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
1311 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
1312 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
1313 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
1315 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
1316 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
1317 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
1318 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
1321 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
1323 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/8587d77c565f2d43>
1325 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
1327 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
1329 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/63a8c34385de82a1>
1331 What of October, that ambiguous month
1333 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1335 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
1337 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
1338 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
1339 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
1340 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
1341 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
1343 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
1345 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
1346 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
1348 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
1349 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
1350 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
1351 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
1353 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
1354 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
1355 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
1356 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
1357 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
1358 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
1359 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
1360 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
1362 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
1363 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
1365 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
1366 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
1367 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
1368 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
1369 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
1370 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
1371 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
1372 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
1373 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
1374 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
1376 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
1377 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
1378 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
1380 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
1381 pushing to increase the membership?
1383 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
1384 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
1385 futile and impotent it becomes.'
1387 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
1389 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
1390 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
1392 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1394 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg142422.html>
1396 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
1397 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
1398 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
1399 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
1400 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
1402 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
1403 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
1404 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
1405 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
1406 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
1409 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
1410 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
1411 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
1413 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
1414 redundancy payments as well.'
1416 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
1417 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
1419 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
1421 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1423 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
1425 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
1426 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
1427 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
1430 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
1432 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
1433 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
1434 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
1435 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
1436 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
1437 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
1438 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
1440 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
1441 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
1442 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
1443 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
1444 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
1445 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
1446 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
1447 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
1449 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
1450 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
1452 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
1453 name like Charlie Umtali?
1455 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
1456 know something about our official visitor.
1458 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
1459 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
1460 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
1461 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
1462 knew little of his background.
1464 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
1465 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
1466 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
1468 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
1472 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
1473 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
1474 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
1476 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
1477 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
1479 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
1480 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
1481 revolving door and comes out in front.'
1483 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
1485 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
1487 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
1489 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
1491 L<Announced on 2006-02-01 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/28caf52e41ebe723>
1493 It's not that easy bein' green
1494 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
1495 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
1496 Or something much more colorful like that
1498 It's not easy bein' green
1499 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
1500 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
1501 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
1504 But green's the color of Spring
1505 And green can be cool and friendly-like
1506 And green can be big like an ocean
1507 Or important like a mountain
1510 When green is all there is to be
1511 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
1512 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
1513 And I think it's what I want to be
1515 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
1517 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/d231fc554af8cc51>
1519 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
1521 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
1523 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1525 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9a545704a0062f16>
1527 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
1528 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
1531 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
1532 the wolf? What then?"
1534 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
1536 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
1538 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
1539 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
1540 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
1542 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
1543 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
1544 climbed up the high stone wall.
1546 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
1547 stretched out over the wall.
1549 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
1550 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
1551 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
1553 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
1554 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
1556 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
1557 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
1559 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
1561 L<Announced on 2004-11-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20041128000836.GA304@Bagpuss.unfortu.net>
1563 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
1566 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
1568 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
1569 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
1570 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
1572 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
1574 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
1577 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
1578 grow up into a beehive."
1580 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
1582 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
1583 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
1584 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
1586 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
1588 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
1589 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
1590 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
1592 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
1594 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
1596 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
1598 "Hunting," said Pooh.
1602 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
1604 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
1606 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
1608 "What do you think you'll answer?"
1610 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
1611 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
1614 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
1615 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
1617 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
1619 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/68340e2e4c39222c>
1621 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
1622 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
1623 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
1624 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
1625 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
1626 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
1629 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
1630 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
1631 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
1632 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
1633 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
1634 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
1635 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
1636 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
1637 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
1638 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
1640 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
1642 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/f92175725af7a5ad>
1644 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
1645 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
1646 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
1647 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
1648 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
1650 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
1651 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
1652 Caledonia and South America.
1654 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
1656 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/ca6ce4a7ed9f219c?pli=1>
1658 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
1659 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
1660 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
1661 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
1662 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
1663 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
1664 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
1666 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
1667 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
1668 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
1669 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
1671 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
1672 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
1673 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
1674 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
1676 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
1677 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
1679 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
1681 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/c7333acf03ef4015>
1683 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
1684 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
1685 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
1686 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
1688 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
1689 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
1690 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
1691 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
1692 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
1693 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
1694 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
1695 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
1697 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
1698 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
1701 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
1703 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/84f6fdd73cc56a1b>
1705 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
1706 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
1707 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
1708 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1710 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
1711 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
1712 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
1713 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
1714 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
1715 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
1717 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
1719 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e500353440769ebf>
1721 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
1722 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
1723 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
1724 We must find him of the train can't start.'
1725 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
1726 They are searching high and low,
1727 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
1728 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
1729 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
1730 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
1731 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
1732 He's been busy in the luggage van!
1733 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
1734 And the the signal goes 'All Clear!'
1735 And we're off at last of the northern part
1736 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
1738 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
1740 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/968fb8d71e23af69>
1742 We are the music makers,
1743 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
1744 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
1745 And sitting by desolate streams; --
1746 World-losers and world-forsakers,
1747 On whom the pale moon gleams:
1748 Yet we are the movers and shakers
1749 Of the world for ever, it seems.
1751 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
1753 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/5ced50bebcd11c96>
1755 There may be trouble ahead,
1756 But while there's music and moonlight,
1757 And love and romance,
1758 Let's face the music and dance.
1760 Before the fiddlers have fled,
1761 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
1762 And while we still have that chance,
1763 Let's face the music and dance.
1765 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
1766 Humming a different tune, and then,
1768 There may be teardrops to shed,
1769 So while there's music and moonlight,
1770 And love and romance,
1771 Let's face the music and dance.
1773 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
1775 L<Announced on 2003-11-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/4714574f93967673>
1777 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
1778 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
1779 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
1780 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
1781 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
1782 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
1784 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
1785 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
1786 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
1787 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
1790 O farther farther sail!
1791 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
1792 O farther, farther, farther sail!
1794 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
1796 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/7669de5804b792f6>
1798 It's fun to charter an accountant
1799 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
1800 To find, explore the funds offshore
1801 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
1803 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
1805 L<Announced on 2003-10-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83680ef3bbf7378d>
1807 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
1808 In a Sieve they went to sea:
1809 In spite of all their friends could say,
1810 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
1811 In a Sieve they went to sea!
1812 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
1813 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
1814 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
1815 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
1816 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
1818 Far and few, far and few,
1819 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
1820 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
1821 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
1823 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
1825 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
1827 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
1829 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
1831 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
1832 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
1833 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
1834 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
1835 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
1837 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1839 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
1841 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
1842 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
1843 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
1844 then you can be my most trusted minister."
1846 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1848 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
1850 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
1851 a knife with a curved blade.
1853 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1855 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
1857 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
1858 me because I've got magic aaargh."
1860 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
1862 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
1864 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
1865 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
1868 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
1869 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
1870 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
1871 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
1872 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
1873 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
1875 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1877 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
1879 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
1880 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
1881 said the low priest.
1882 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
1883 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
1884 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
1885 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
1886 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
1887 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
1888 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
1889 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
1890 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
1891 said the High Priest.
1892 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
1893 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
1894 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
1895 There were footsteps again.
1897 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
1899 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
1901 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1903 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
1905 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1907 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
1909 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
1911 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
1913 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
1914 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
1915 got there first, and is waiting for it.
1917 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
1919 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
1921 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
1922 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
1923 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
1924 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
1925 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
1927 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
1929 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
1931 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
1933 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
1935 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
1936 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
1937 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
1938 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
1939 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
1940 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
1941 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
1942 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
1943 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
1944 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
1946 "All that?" said Twoflower.
1950 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
1952 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
1954 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
1955 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
1956 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
1958 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1960 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/deb8cb9ad918716f>
1962 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
1963 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
1964 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
1965 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
1966 long in this instance.
1968 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1970 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e3d4acc7a8dd3ce5>
1972 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
1974 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
1976 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
1978 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
1979 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
1982 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
1983 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
1985 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
1986 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
1989 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
1990 my precious, three guesseses.'
1992 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
1994 L<Announced on 2001-08-04 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
1996 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
1998 No announcement available.
2000 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
2002 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
2004 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
2006 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
2008 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
2010 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
2012 The dragon is withered,
2013 His bones are now crumbled;
2014 His armour is shivered,
2015 His splendour is humbled!
2016 Though sword shall be rusted,
2017 And throne and crown perish
2018 With strength that men trusted
2019 And wealth that they cherish,
2020 Here grass is still growing,
2021 And leaves are a yet swinging,
2022 The white water flowing,
2023 And elves are yet singing
2024 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
2025 Come back to the valley.
2027 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2029 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
2031 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
2033 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
2035 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
2037 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6c240ad0b189cb47>
2039 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
2041 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83e5421124a7b49d>
2043 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
2044 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
2045 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
2046 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
2047 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
2048 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
2049 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
2050 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
2051 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
2052 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
2055 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2057 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6aaeb6ec699bd116>
2059 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
2060 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
2061 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
2062 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
2063 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
2064 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
2065 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
2066 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
2067 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
2068 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
2071 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
2073 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9281dc6194d15940>
2075 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2077 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
2078 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
2079 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>