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 v5.21.0 - Friedrich von Schiller, The Song of the Bell
22 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215826.html>
24 Walled in fast within the earth
25 Stands the form burnt out of clay.
26 This must be the bell’s great birth!
27 Fellows, lend a hand to-day.
28 Sweat must trickle now
29 From the burning brow,
30 Till the work its master honour.
31 Blessing comes from Heaven’s Donor.
33 =head2 v5.20.0 - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
35 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215815.html>
37 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
38 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
39 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
40 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
41 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
42 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
44 -- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
46 =head2 v5.19.11 - Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror
48 L<Announced on 2014-04-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/04/msg214580.html>
50 O rigorous mathematics, I have not forgotten you since your wise lessons,
51 sweeter than honey, filtered into my heart like a refreshing wave.
52 Instinctively, from the cradle, I had longed to drink from your source, older
53 than the sun, and I continue to tread the sacred sanctuary of your solemn
54 temple, I, the most faithful of your devotees. There was a vagueness in my
55 mind, something thick as smoke; but I managed to mount the steps which lead to
56 your altar, and you drove away this dark veil, as the wind blows the
57 draught-board. You replaced it with excessive coldness, consummate prudence and
58 implacable logic. With the aid of your fortifying milk, my intellect developed
59 rapidly and took on immense proportions amid the ravishing lucidity which you
60 bestow as a gift on all those who sincerely love you. Arithmetic! Algebra!
61 Geometry! Awe-inspiring trinity! Luminous triangle! He who has not known you
64 -- Isidore-Lucien Ducasse [as "Comte de Lautréamont"],
65 /Les Chants de Maldoror/, trans. Paul Knight
67 =head2 v5.19.10 - John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B
69 L<Announced on 2014-03-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/03/msg213851.html>
71 The urge to discover secrets is deeply ingrained in human nature; even
72 the least curious mind is roused by the promise of sharing knowledge
73 withheld from others. Some are fortunate enough to find a job which
74 consists in the solution of mysteries, whether it be the physicist who
75 tracks down a hitherto unknown nuclear particle or the policeman who
76 detects a criminal. But most of us are driven to sublimate this urge
77 by the solving of artificial puzzles devised for our entertainment.
79 =head2 v5.19.9 - R. A. MacAvoy, Tea with the Black Dragon
81 L<Announced on 2014-02-20 by Tony Cook|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/02/msg213047.html>
83 Old hands. The smell of rain--the smell of Ch'an. Quiet words in
84 rough Cantonese. "I am not to be your master. Your master has to be
85 stronger than you are--has to tell you you are a fool and make you
86 know it. And make you feel content in being a fool. How could I do
87 that for you? I'm old. You are too strong for me; you are full of
88 chi." The old man has paused then, huddled against the wind while
89 clouds thickened above them.
91 "I will tell you this, Long," he continued, "Before you find yourself
92 you will lose your chi. Also you will leave behind you all pride of
93 body, pride of mind. You will be reduced. Like me." The old man
94 closed his eyes, and rain began to beat against his gray, crew-cut
95 hair. He pulled his coat closer. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and
96 he looked Long in the face.
98 "You must leave China. Go across the ocean. There you will meet your
99 master." He set down his teacup with a palsied hand. His voice rose,
102 "I tell you this, most honored and impressive visitor. You are a
103 fool, yes, but you will find the very thing you seek. You will find
106 =head2 v5.19.8 - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
108 L<Announced on 2014-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211729.html>
110 “I used to get a big kick out of saving people’s lives. Now I wonder what the
111 hell’s the point, since they all have to die anyway.”
113 “Oh, there’s a point, all right,” Dunbar assured him.
115 “Is there? What is the point?”
117 “The point is to keep them from dying for as long as you can.”
119 “Yeah, but what’s the point, since they all have to die anyway?”
121 “The trick is not to think about that.”
123 “Never mind the trick. What the hell’s the point?”
125 Dunbar pondered in silence for a few moments. “Who the hell knows?”
127 =head2 v5.19.7 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five"
129 L<Announced on 2013-12-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/12/msg210882.html>
133 And somewhere in there was springtime. The corpse mines were closed
134 down. The soldiers all left to fight the Russians. In the suburbs,
135 the women and children dug rifle pits. Billy and the rest of his group
136 were locked up in the stable in the suburbs. And then, one morning,
137 they got up to discover that the door was unlocked. World War Two in
140 Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were
141 leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any
142 kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two
143 horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped.
147 One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Pee-tee-weet?"
151 =head2 v5.19.6 - Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Spam"
153 L<Announced on 2013-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/11/msg210043.html>
157 Interior: cheap cafe. All the customers are Vikings. Mr and Mrs Bun enter downwards (on wires).
161 Mr. Bun: What have you got, then?
162 Waitress: Well there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam;
163 egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam;
164 spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam;
165 or lobster thermidor aux crevettes, with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried
167 Mrs. Bun: Have you got anything without spam in it?
168 Waitress: Well, there's spam, egg, sausage and spam. That's not got MUCH spam in it.
169 Mrs. Bun: I don't want ANY spam.
170 Mr. Bun: Why can't she have egg, bacon, spam and sausage?
171 Mrs. Bun: That's got spam in it!
172 Mr. Bun: Not as much as spam, egg, sausage and spam.
173 Mrs. Bun: Look, could I have egg, bacon, spam and sausage, without the spam.
174 Waitress: Uuuuuuggggh!
175 Mrs. Bun: What d'you mean, uugggh! I don't like spam.
176 Vikings: (singing) Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam ... spam, spam, spam, spam ... lovely spam, wonderful spam ...
178 (Brief shot of a Viking ship)
180 Waitress: Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! You can't have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
182 Waitress: No, it wouldn't be egg, bacon, spam and sausage, would it?
183 Mrs. Bun: I don't like spam!
187 =head2 v5.19.5 - Charles Baudelaire, "The Flowers of Evil", 51. The Cat
189 L<Announced on 2013-10-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/10/msg208752.html>
195 A cat is strolling through my mind
196 Acting as though he owned the place,
197 A lovely cat -- strong, charming, sweet.
198 When he meows, one scarcely hears,
200 So tender and discreet his tone;
201 But whether he should growl or purr
202 His voice is always rich and deep.
203 That is the secret of his charm.
205 This purling voice that filters down
206 Into my darkest depths of soul
207 Fulfils me like a balanced verse,
208 Delights me as a potion would.
210 It puts to sleep the cruellest ills
211 And keeps a rein on ecstasies --
212 Without the need for any words
213 It can pronounce the longest phrase.
215 Oh no, there is no bow that draws
216 Across my heart, fine instrument,
217 And makes to sing so royally
218 The strongest and the purest chord,
220 More than your voice, mysterious cat,
221 Exotic cat, seraphic cat,
222 In whom all is, angelically,
223 As subtle as harmonious.
227 From his soft fur, golden and brown,
228 Goes out so sweet a scent, one night
229 I might have been embalmed in it
230 By giving him one little pet.
232 He is my household's guardian soul;
233 He judges, he presides, inspires
234 All matters in hos royal realm;
235 Might he be fairy? or a god?
237 When my eyes, to this cat I love
238 Drawn as by a magnet's force,
239 Turn tamely back from that appeal,
240 And when I look within myself,
242 I notice with astonishment
243 The fire of his opal eyes,
244 Clear beacons glowing, living jewels,
245 Taking my measure, steadily.
247 -- Charles Baudelaire, /The Flowers of Evil, 51. The Cat/,
252 =head2 v5.19.4 - Washington Irving, "The Widow and Her Son"
254 L<Announced on 2013-09-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/09/msg207969.html>
258 There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood;
259 that softens the heart and brings it back to the feelings of infancy.
260 Who that has languished, even in advanced life, in sickness and
261 despondency — who that has pined on a weary bed in the neglect and
262 loneliness of a foreign land — but has thought on the mother "that
263 looked on his childhood," that smoothed his pillow and administered to
264 his helplessness. — Oh! there is an enduring tenderness in the love
265 of a mother to her son that transcends all other affections of the
266 heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness — nor daunted by
267 danger — nor weakened by worthlessness — nor stifled by ingratitude.
268 She will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience — she will
269 surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment — she will glory in his fame
270 and exult in his prosperity. And if misfortune overtake him he will
271 be the dearer to her from misfortune — and if disgrace settle upon his
272 name, she will still love and cherish him in spite of his disgrace —
273 and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to
278 =head2 v5.19.3 - Andrew Hodges, "Alan Turing: The Enigma"
280 L<Announced on 2013-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg206318.html>
284 E.M. Forster, outdoing the King's heresy with grand bravura, had
285 written in 1938 that if he were faced with the choice between
286 betraying his country and betraying his friends, he hoped he would
287 have the courage to betray his country. He would always put the
288 personal above the political. But for Alan Turing, unlike Forster, or
289 Wittgenstein, or G.H. Hardy, it was more than a theoretical question.
290 For him not only had the personal become the political, but the
291 political was the personal. He had chosen and promised for himself in
292 working for the government. The choice for him therefore was that
293 between betraying one part of himself and betraying another part. And
294 however much he wavered between these alternatives, there was a solid
295 logic to the mind of security, one that could not be expected to take
296 an interest in notions of freedom and development. He had no rights
297 to such things, as he would have had to admit. He might have
298 outwitted the Home Guard, but when it came to questions that mattered,
299 there was no doubt that he had placed himself under military law.
300 There was a war on; there was always a war on now.
304 =head2 v5.19.2 - Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month"
306 L<Announced on 2013-07-22 by Aristotle Pagaltzis|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/07/msg204905.html>
310 The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the
311 correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life,
312 showing things that never were nor could be. [...] Not all is delight,
313 however [...] One must perform perfectly. The computer resembles the
314 magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of
315 the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn't work.
319 =head2 v5.19.1 - William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
321 L<Announced on 2013-06-21 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/06/msg203449.html>
323 Over hill, over dale,
324 Thorough bush, thorough briar,
325 Over park, over pale,
326 Thorough flood, thorough fire,
327 I do wander everywhere,
328 Swifter than the moon's sphere;
329 And I serve the fairy queen,
330 To dew her orbs upon the green.
331 The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
332 In their gold coats, spots you see;
333 Those be rubies, fairy favours,
334 In their freckles live our savours.
335 I must go seek some dew-drops here,
336 And hang a perl in every cowslip's ear.
337 Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone;
338 My queen and all her elves come here anon!
340 =head2 v5.19.0 - Batman, of the Joker, in "The Dark Knight Returns"
342 L<Announced on 2013-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201980.html>
344 From the beginning, I knew…
345 …that there was nothing wrong with you…
349 =head2 v5.18.2 - Miss Manners
351 L<Announced on 2014-01-06 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211224.html>
353 One of the major mistakes people make is that they think manners are
354 only the expression of happy ideas. There's a whole range of behavior
355 that can be expressed in a mannerly way. That's what civilization is all
356 about – doing it in a mannerly and not an antagonistic way. One of the
357 places we went wrong was the naturalistic Rousseauean movement of the
358 Sixties in which people said, "Why can't you just say what's on your
359 mind?" In civilization there have to be some restraints. If we followed
360 every impulse, we'd be killing one another.
362 =head2 v5.18.1 - Chuck Moore
364 L<Announced on 2013-08-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205897.html>
366 The operating system is another concept that is curious. Operating
367 systems are dauntingly complex and totally unnecessary. It’s a brilliant
368 thing that Bill Gates has done in selling the world on the notion of
369 operating systems. It’s probably the greatest con game the world has
372 An operating system does absolutely nothing for you. As long as you had
373 something — a subroutine called disk driver, a subroutine called some
374 kind of communication support, in the modern world, it doesn’t do
375 anything else. In fact, Windows spends a lot of time with overlays and
376 disk management all stuff like that which are irrelevant. You’ve got
377 gigabyte disks; you’ve got megabyte RAMs. The world has changed in a way
378 that renders the operating system unnecessary.
380 =head2 v5.18.1-RC1 - Chuck Moore
382 L<Announced on 2013-08-02 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205445.html>
384 Compilers are probably the worst code ever written. They are written by
385 someone who has never written a compiler before and will never do so
386 again. The more elaborate the language, the more complex, bug-ridden,
387 and unusable is the compiler. But a simple compiler for a simple
388 language is an essential tool—if only for documentation.
390 =head2 v5.18.0 - Yevgeny Zamyatin
392 L<Announced on 2013-05-18 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201940.html>
394 It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people
395 who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write,
396 walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes,
397 and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in
398 search, in questions, in torment.
400 =head2 v5.18.0-RC4 - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
402 L<Announced on 2013-04-16 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201889.html>
404 Clevinger was dead. That was the basic flaw in his philosophy.
406 =head2 v5.18.0-RC3 - Tom Waits, "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me"
408 L<Announced on 2013-04-14 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201823.html>
410 I'd love to go drowning
411 And to stay and to stay
412 But the ocean doesn't want me today
413 I'll go in up to here
414 It can't possibly hurt
415 All they will find is my beer
418 =head2 v5.18.0-RC2 - Tom Waits, "Earth Died Screaming"
420 L<Announced on 2013-05-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201723.html>
422 And the great day of wrath has come
423 And here's mud in your big red eye
424 The poker's in the fire
425 And the locusts take the sky
426 And the earth died screaming
427 While I lay dreaming of you
429 =head2 v5.18.0-RC1 - Tom Waits, "What's He Building in There?"
431 L<Announced on 2013-05-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201651.html>
433 What's he building in there?
435 We have a right to know…
437 =head2 v5.17.11 - Nigel Tufnel, This is Spın̈al Tap
439 L<Announced on 2013-04-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/04/msg201056.html>
441 It's very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to…
442 eleven! Look, right across the board: eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven!
444 =head2 v5.17.10 - Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon The Deep
446 L<Announced on 2013-03-22 by Max Maischein|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00908.html>
448 The archive informed the automation. Data structures were built, recipes
449 followed. A local network was built, faster than anything on Straum, but surely
450 safe. Nodes were added, modified by other recipes. The archive was a friendly
451 place, with hierarchies of translation keys that led them along. Straum itself
452 would be famous for this.
454 Six months passed. A year.
456 The omniscient view. Not self-aware really. Self-awareness is much over-rated.
457 Most automation works far better as a part of a whole, and even if human-
458 powerful, it does not need to self-know.
460 =head2 v5.16.3 - Devo, Freedom of Choice
462 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00414.html>
464 A victim of collision on the open sea
465 Nobody ever said that life was free
466 Sink, swim, go down with the ship
467 But use your freedom of choice
469 =head2 v5.14.4 - Arthur C. Clarke, The Nine Billion Names of God
471 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00393.html>
473 He began to sing, but gave it up after a while. This vast arena of
474 mountains, gleaming like whitely hooded ghosts on every side, did not
475 encourage such ebullience. Presently George glanced at his watch.
477 'Should be there in an hour,' he called back over his shoulder to
478 Chuck. Then he added, in an afterthought: 'Wonder if the computer's
479 finished its run. It was due about now.'
481 Chuck didn't reply, so George swung round in his saddle. He could just
482 see Chuck's face, a white oval turned towards the sky.
484 'Look,' whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There
485 is always a last time for everything.)
487 Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
490 =head2 v5.17.9 - Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
492 L<Announced on 2013-02-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-02/msg01146.html>
494 Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.
495 The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a
496 recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of
497 his poem 'Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My
498 Armpit One Midsummer Morning' four of his audience died
499 of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the
500 Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one
501 of his own legs off. Grunthos is reported to have been
502 'disappointed' by the poem's reception, and was about to
503 embark on a reading of his twelve-book epic entitled
504 'My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles' when his own major intestine,
505 in a desperate attempt to save life and civilisation,
506 leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.
508 The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator
509 Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England,
510 in the destruction of the planet Earth.
512 =head2 v5.17.8 - Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost
514 L<Announced on 2013-01-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-01/msg00518.html>
516 I must here declare myself as someone who does not for a moment subscribe to
517 the general view that a willingness to perform oneself is detrimental to the
518 dignity of experimental philosophy. There is, after all, a clear distinction
519 between labour carried out for financial reward, and that done for the
520 improvement of mankind: to put it another way, Lower as a philosopher was
521 fully my equal even if he fell away when he became the practising physician.
522 I think ridiculous of certain professors of anatomy, who find it beneath
523 them to pick up the knife themselves, but merely comment while hired hands
524 do the cutting. Sylvius would never have dreamt of sitting on a dais reading
525 from an authority while others cut — when he taught, the knife was
526 in his hand and the blood spattered his coat. Boyle also did not scruple to
527 perform his own experiments and, on one occasion in my presence, even showed
528 himself willing to anatomise a rat with his very own hands. Nor was he less
529 a gentleman when he had finished. Indeed, in my opinion, his stature was all
530 the greater, for in Boyle wealth, humility and curiosity mingled, and the
531 world is richer for it.
533 =head2 v5.17.7 - R. Scott Bakker, The Darkness That Comes Before
535 L<Announced on 2012-12-18 by Dave Rolsky|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-12/msg00679.html>
538 The boy extinguished. Only a place.
540 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.
541 A place without breath or sound. A place of sight alone. A place without before or after . . . almost.
542 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.
543 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 . . .
544 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.
545 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.
546 I have been legion . . .
547 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.
550 =head2 v5.17.6 - Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
552 L<Announced on 2012-11-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00760.html>
554 Beatrice, looking like a gypsy queen, smoldered at the foot of a statue
555 of a young physical student. At first glance, the laboratory-gowned
556 scientist seemed to be a perfect servant of nothing but truth. At first
557 glance, one was convinced that nothing but truth could please him as he
558 beamed at his test tube. At first glance, one thought that he was as
559 much above the beastly concerns of mankind as the harmoniums in the
560 caves of Mercury. There, at first glance, was a young man without
561 vanity, without lust — and one accepted at its face value the title Salo
562 had engraved on the statue, "Discovery of Atomic Power."
564 =head2 v5.12.5 - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
566 Announced on 2012-11-10 by Dominic Hargreaves
568 Music oft hath such a charm
569 To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
571 =head2 v5.16.2 - Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad, Trurl's Machine
573 L<Announced on 2012-11-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00017.html>
575 Once upon a time Trurl the constructor built an eight-story thinking
576 machine. When it was finished, he gave it a coat of white paint,
577 trimmed the edges in lavender, stepped back, squinted, then added a
578 little curlicue on the front and, where one might imagine the forehead
579 to be, a few pale orange polkadots. Extremely pleased with himself,
580 he whistled an air and, as is always done on such occasions, asked it
581 the ritual question of how much is two plus two.
583 The machine stirred. Its tubes began to glow, its coils warmed up,
584 current coursed through all its circuits like a waterfall,
585 transformers hummed and throbbed, there was a clanging, and a
586 chugging, and such an ungodly racket that Trurl began to think of
587 adding a special mentation muffler. Meanwhile the machine labored on,
588 as if it had been given the most difficult problem in the Universe to
589 solve; the ground shook, the sand slid underfoot from the vibration,
590 valves popped like champagne corks, the relays nearly gave way under
591 the strain. At last, when Trurl had grown extremely impatient, the
592 machine ground to a halt and said in a voice like thunder: SEVEN!
594 =head2 v5.17.5 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
596 L<Announced on 2012-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-10/msg01007.html>
598 Neither of them noticed the pair of polka-dotted knickers hiding
599 behind the ventilation duct overhead, listening patiently and
600 recording everything.
602 =head2 v5.17.4 - Roald Dahl, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
604 L<Announced on 2012-09-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-09/msg01226.html>
606 The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
607 She whips a pistol from her knickers.
608 She aims it at the creature's head,
609 And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
611 A few weeks later, in the wood,
612 I came across Miss Riding Hood.
613 But what a change! No cloak of red,
614 No silly hood upon her head.
615 She said, "Hello, and do please note
616 My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
618 =head2 v5.17.3 - Kris Ta-belle, "Smoked Perl Onion Soup"
620 L<Announced on 2012-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190775.html>
624 Cut 16 Perl Onions into quarters and put them in a grill smoker rack
625 or a perforated pan over a BBQ using hickory wood chips or Special
626 Blend Smoker Bisquettes. Smoke them for an hour and remove once they
628 Let them cool and put them in the fridge (or freezer) until you are
629 ready to create the soup.
633 16 diced, pre-smoked, Perl Onions
636 2 small garlic cloves, finely minced
639 black pepper to taste
641 1/4 cup all purpose flour
642 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
643 1 cup of thick cream (milk can be used as a substitute)
647 Melt the butter in a pan and then add olive oil.
648 Heat and add the onions to caramelize over a medium-high heat for up
650 Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
651 Add the salt, pepper and sugar.
652 Now add the red wine and reduce to a jam like consistency.
653 Add the flour, stir well and add the stock a cup at a time.
654 Simmer for 30 minutes, add the cream and heat to almost boiling.
658 =head2 v5.17.2 - Terry Pratchet, "The Colour of Magic"
660 L<Announced on 2012-07-21 by TonyC|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/07/msg189828.html>
662 ‘I knew it,’ said Rincewind. ‘We're in a strong magical field.’
664 Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made
665 their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
667 The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow
668 butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme
669 and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
671 Hrun shrugged and went back to oiling his biceps. They gleamed.
673 ‘Looks alright to me,’ he said.
675 ‘Try tossing a coin,’ said Rincewind.
679 ‘Go on. Toss a coin.’
681 ‘Hokay,’ said Hrun. 'If that gives you any pleasure.’ He reached into
682 his pouch and withdrew a handful of loose change plundered from a
683 dozen realms. With some care he selected a Zchloty leaden
684 quarter-iotum and balanced it on a purple thumbnail.
686 ‘You call,’ he said. ‘Heads or—’ he inspected the obverse with
687 an air of intense concentration, ‘some sort of a fish with legs.’
689 ‘When it's in the air,’ said Rincewind. Hrun grinned and flicked his thumb.
691 The iotum rose, spinning.
693 ‘Edge,’ said Rincewind, without looking at it.
695 =head2 v5.17.1 - Rand Miller, "Myst: The Book of Ti'ana"
697 L<Announced on 2012-06-20 by doy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/06/msg188354.html>
699 On their return from Ko'ah, Aitrus had shown her the Book, patiently
700 taking her through page after page, and showing her how such an Age was
701 "made." She had seen at once the differences between this archaic form
702 and the ordinary written speech of the D'ni, noting how it was not
703 merely more elaborate but more specific: a language of precise yet
704 subtle descriptive power. Yet seeing was one thing, believing another.
705 Given all the evidence, her rational mind still fought against accepting
708 =head2 v5.17.0 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
710 L<Announced on 2012-05-26 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg187214.html>
712 `Welcome, comrades!' Burya opened his arms toward the soldier.
713 `Yes it is true! With help from our allies of the Festival, the iron
714 hand of the reactionary junta is about to be overthrown for all time!
715 The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has
716 been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can
717 be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination,
718 to each according to his needs! Join us or better still, bring your
719 fellow soldiers and workers to join us!'
721 There was a sharp bang from the roof of the Corn Exchange, right at the
722 climax of his impromptu speech; heads turned in alarm. Something had
723 broken inside the spork factory and a stream of rainbow-hued plastic
724 implements fountained toward the sky and clattered to the cobblestones
725 on every side, like a harbinger of the postindustrial society to come.
726 Workers and peasants alike stared in open-mouthed bewilderment at this
727 astounding display of productivity, then bent to scrabble in the muck
728 for the brightly colored sporks of revolution. A volley of shots rang
729 out and Burya Rubenstein raised his hands, grinning wildly, to accept
730 the salute of the soldiers from the Skull Hill garrison.
732 =head2 v5.16.1 - Emerald Rose - Never Split The Party
734 L<Announced on 2012-08-08 by Ricardo
735 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00307.html>
737 Don't you know? You never split the party
738 Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty
739 The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light
740 And you never let that damn thief out of sight…
742 -- Emerald Rose, Never Split The Party
744 =head2 v5.16.1 RC1 - Tom Moldvay - Dungeons & Dragons
746 L<Announced on 2012-08-03 by Ricardo
747 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00157.html>
749 I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up.
750 Fifty feed of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes.
751 Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers.
752 The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.
756 I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The
757 sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow
758 collection of precious gems. I shouted my battle cry and charged
760 My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut
761 inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The
762 swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other
763 side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet.
764 The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the
765 dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.
767 -- Tom Moldvay, Foreward to the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook
769 =head2 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden - September 1, 1939
771 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo
772 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-05/msg00728.html>
774 All I have is a voice
775 To undo the folded lie,
776 The romantic lie in the brain
777 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
778 And the lie of Authority
779 Whose buildings grope the sky:
780 There is no such thing as the State
781 And no one exists alone;
782 Hunger allows no choice
783 To the citizen or the police;
784 We must love one another or die.
786 -- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
788 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
790 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by
791 Abigail|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/184824>
793 How many roads must a man walk down
794 Before you call him a man?
795 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
796 Before she sleeps in the sand?
797 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
798 Before they're forever banned?
799 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
800 The answer is blowin' in the wind
802 How many years can a mountain exist
803 Before it's washed to the sea?
804 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
805 Before they're allowed to be free?
806 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
807 Pretending he just doesn't see?
808 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
809 The answer is blowin' in the wind
811 How many times must a man look up
812 Before he can see the sky?
813 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
814 Before he can hear people cry?
815 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
816 That too many people have died?
817 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
818 The answer is blowin' in the wind
820 -- Bob Dylan, Spring 1962
822 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF - The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way
824 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max
825 Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
827 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
828 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
829 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
830 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
831 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
833 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
834 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
835 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
836 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
837 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
838 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
839 Top for more than one week.
841 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
842 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
843 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
844 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
845 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
846 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
847 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
849 "I'm never going to give you up"
851 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, The Voyage of QV66
853 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams
854 |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
856 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
858 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
859 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
860 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
861 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
864 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
865 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
866 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
867 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
868 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
869 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
870 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
871 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
872 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
873 down cheering and applauding.
875 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
877 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea
879 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave
880 Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
882 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
883 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
884 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
885 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
886 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
887 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
889 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
890 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
891 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
892 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
893 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
894 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
895 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
896 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
898 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman
900 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve
901 Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
903 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
904 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
905 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
906 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
907 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
908 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
909 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
910 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
911 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
912 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
913 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
914 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
915 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
916 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
917 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
918 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
919 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
920 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
921 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
922 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
923 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
925 -- Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman,
926 trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
928 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
930 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian
931 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
933 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
934 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
935 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
936 the human experience, the better design we will have.
938 =head2 v5.14.3 - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
940 L<Announced on 2012-10-12 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194057.html>
942 The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all
943 this time there was not any man died in his own person,
944 videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed
945 out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die
946 before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he
947 would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned
948 nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good
949 youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
950 being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish
951 coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these
952 are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have
953 eaten them, but not for love.
955 -- As You Like It, William Shakespeare
957 =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 >>
959 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian
960 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
963 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
964 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
965 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
966 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
967 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
968 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
970 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
971 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
972 the heart of the programmer.
975 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, All Art is Quite Useless
977 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan
978 Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
980 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
981 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
982 do so at their peril.
984 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
985 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
986 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
987 artist is in accord with himself.
989 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
990 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
991 thing is that one admires it intensely.
993 All art is quite useless.
995 -- Oscar Wilde, From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
998 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Third Duina Elegy
1000 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo
1001 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-08/msg00694.html>
1003 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
1004 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
1005 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
1006 things the significance of a human future;
1007 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
1008 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
1009 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
1010 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
1011 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
1012 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
1013 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
1014 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
1015 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
1016 hurtles all ages along with it forever
1017 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
1019 -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino, The First Elegy
1020 trans., C. F. MacIntyre
1022 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
1024 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
1026 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
1027 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
1028 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
1029 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
1030 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
1031 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
1032 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
1034 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
1035 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
1036 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
1037 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
1038 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
1041 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
1042 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
1045 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
1047 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
1049 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all
1050 you will have gained.
1052 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
1054 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
1056 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
1057 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
1058 When breakfast is taken away,
1059 To turn his attention to dinner;
1060 And it's not in the range of belief,
1061 To look upon him as a glutton,
1062 Who, when he is tired of beef,
1063 Determines to tackle the mutton.
1064 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
1065 If it will appease her sorrow,
1066 I'll marry this lady today,
1067 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
1069 =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 >>
1071 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
1073 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
1074 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
1075 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
1076 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
1077 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
1078 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
1079 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
1080 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
1081 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
1083 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
1085 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
1087 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
1088 Tolerates no work of man.
1089 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
1090 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
1091 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
1092 While the last larks sing and soar,
1093 From the heather-blossoms sweet
1094 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
1095 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
1096 Eleanor makes macaroons!
1098 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
1100 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
1102 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
1103 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
1104 Lobster I freely endorse,
1105 In pate or patty or pasty.
1106 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
1107 And nothing the matter with jam,
1108 And the warmest greetings I utter
1109 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
1112 And I think very fondly of food.
1113 Through I'm broody at times
1114 When bothered by rhymes,
1118 =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 >>
1120 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
1122 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
1123 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
1124 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
1125 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
1126 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
1127 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
1129 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
1130 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
1131 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
1132 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
1133 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
1134 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
1135 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
1137 So a freely distributable program is born.
1139 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
1141 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
1143 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
1144 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
1145 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
1146 and your bags will be offloaded.
1148 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, Fordlandia, "the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
1150 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
1152 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
1153 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
1154 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
1155 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
1156 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
1157 down their paved streets.
1159 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
1160 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
1161 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
1162 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
1163 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
1164 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
1166 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
1168 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
1170 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
1171 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
1172 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
1173 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
1174 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
1175 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
1176 This seemed doubly astounding to me—first that Australia could
1177 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
1178 this had never reached me.
1180 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<Leaves of Grass|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
1182 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-03/msg00560.html>
1184 When the full-grown poet came,
1185 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
1186 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
1187 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
1188 Nay he is mine alone;
1189 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
1191 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly
1193 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
1194 And wholly and joyously blends them.
1196 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
1198 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
1200 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
1201 nema ráða vel kunni.
1202 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
1203 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
1205 tíu launstafi ristna.
1206 Þat hefr lauka lindi
1207 langs ofrtrega fengit.
1209 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
1211 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
1213 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
1214 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
1215 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
1216 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
1217 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
1218 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
1219 that fire can truly light the world.
1221 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
1222 ask what you can do for your country.
1224 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
1225 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
1227 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
1228 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
1229 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
1230 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
1231 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
1232 work must truly be our own.
1234 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
1236 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
1238 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
1239 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
1240 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
1241 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
1242 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
1243 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
1244 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
1245 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
1246 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
1247 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
1250 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
1251 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
1252 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
1253 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
1254 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
1255 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
1257 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
1259 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
1261 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
1265 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
1267 Trinity: What did you just say?
1268 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
1269 Trinity: What did you see?
1270 Cypher: What happened?
1271 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just
1273 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
1274 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
1275 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
1277 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when
1278 they change something.
1280 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
1282 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
1284 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
1287 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
1288 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
1289 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
1292 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
1293 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
1295 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
1296 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
1299 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
1301 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
1303 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
1305 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
1306 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
1307 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
1308 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
1309 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
1310 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
1311 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
1312 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
1313 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
1314 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
1316 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
1317 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
1318 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
1319 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
1320 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
1321 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
1323 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
1324 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
1325 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
1326 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
1329 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1331 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
1333 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
1334 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
1335 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
1336 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
1338 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
1339 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
1340 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
1341 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
1344 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
1346 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
1349 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
1350 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
1352 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
1354 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
1356 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
1357 with his nose, you know?'
1359 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
1360 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
1362 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
1364 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
1366 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
1367 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
1368 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
1369 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
1370 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
1372 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
1373 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
1374 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
1375 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
1376 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
1377 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
1378 had ever even been a car.
1380 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
1381 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
1382 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
1383 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
1386 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
1387 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
1388 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
1389 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
1391 It should have fallen apart miles back.
1393 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
1395 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
1397 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
1398 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
1399 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
1400 there exist ... special circumstances.
1402 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
1404 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
1406 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
1407 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
1408 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
1409 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
1410 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
1411 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
1412 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
1414 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
1416 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
1418 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
1419 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
1420 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
1421 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
1422 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
1423 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
1424 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
1426 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
1427 volcano were once more to set to work."
1429 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
1431 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
1433 I saw a huge steam roller,
1434 It blotted out the sun.
1435 The people all lay down, lay down;
1436 They did not try to run.
1437 My love and I, we looked amazed
1438 Upon the gory mystery.
1439 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
1440 'The great machine is history!'
1441 My love and I, we ran away,
1442 The engine did not find us.
1443 We ran up to a mountain top,
1444 Left history far behind us.
1445 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
1446 But somehow we don't think so.
1447 We went to see where history'd been,
1448 And my, the dead did stink so.
1450 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
1452 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
1454 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
1455 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
1456 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
1458 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
1459 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
1460 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
1461 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
1462 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
1463 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
1464 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
1465 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
1467 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
1469 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
1471 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
1472 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
1473 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
1474 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
1475 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
1476 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
1477 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
1478 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
1479 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
1480 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
1481 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
1483 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1485 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
1487 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
1488 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
1489 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
1490 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
1491 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
1492 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
1493 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
1494 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
1495 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
1496 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
1497 and-thirty degrees."
1499 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1501 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
1503 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
1504 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
1505 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
1508 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
1509 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
1510 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
1511 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
1513 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1515 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
1517 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
1518 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
1519 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
1520 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
1521 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
1522 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
1523 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
1524 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
1526 Around and around and around we spin,
1527 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
1529 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1531 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
1533 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
1534 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
1535 your cat grins like that?'
1537 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
1539 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
1540 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
1541 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
1543 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
1544 that cats COULD grin.'
1546 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
1548 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1550 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
1552 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
1555 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
1556 there was silence for some minutes.
1558 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1560 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
1562 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
1563 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
1564 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
1565 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
1566 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
1567 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
1569 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1571 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
1573 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
1574 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
1575 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
1576 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
1577 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1579 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
1580 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
1581 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
1582 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
1583 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
1584 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
1586 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
1588 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
1590 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1592 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
1594 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
1595 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
1596 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
1597 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
1600 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
1601 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
1602 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
1603 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
1604 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
1605 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
1606 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
1607 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1608 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
1609 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
1610 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1612 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
1613 in the world she was to get out again.
1615 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
1617 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
1619 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
1621 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
1623 A little child, a limber elf,
1624 Singing, dancing to itself,
1625 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
1626 That always finds, and never seeks,
1627 Makes such a vision to the sight
1628 As fills a father's eyes with light;
1629 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
1630 Upon his heart, that he at last
1631 Must needs express his love's excess
1632 With words of unmeant bitterness.
1633 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
1634 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
1635 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
1636 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
1637 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
1638 At each wild word to feel within
1639 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
1640 And what, if in a world of sin
1641 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
1642 Such giddiness of heart and brain
1643 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
1644 So talks as it's most used to do.
1646 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
1648 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
1650 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
1651 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
1652 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
1653 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
1654 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
1655 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
1656 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
1657 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
1658 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
1660 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
1662 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
1664 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
1665 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
1667 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
1669 "Why ain't that work?"
1671 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
1672 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
1674 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
1676 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
1677 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
1679 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
1680 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
1681 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
1682 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
1683 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
1685 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
1687 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by Léon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
1689 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
1690 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
1691 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
1692 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
1693 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
1694 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
1695 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
1696 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
1697 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
1698 however much they're into colour.
1700 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
1702 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
1704 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
1705 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
1706 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
1707 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
1708 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
1709 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
1710 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
1711 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
1712 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Milo
1713 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
1714 for more hazardous assignment.
1716 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
1718 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
1720 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
1721 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
1722 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
1723 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
1724 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
1725 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
1726 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
1727 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
1728 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
1729 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
1730 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
1733 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1735 L<Announced on 2009-09-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
1737 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
1738 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
1739 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
1740 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
1741 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
1742 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
1743 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
1744 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
1745 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
1746 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
1748 'Can they all type?' I joked.
1750 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
1751 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
1753 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
1754 'We could have opened an agency.'
1756 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
1757 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
1758 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
1759 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
1761 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
1762 replied. 'Not quite all.'
1764 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
1766 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
1768 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
1770 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
1772 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
1774 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
1776 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
1777 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
1778 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
1779 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
1780 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
1781 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
1782 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
1784 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
1786 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
1788 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
1790 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
1792 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
1794 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
1795 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
1797 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
1799 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
1801 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
1803 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
1805 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
1807 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20050401150702.2b4a70d5@grubert.mandrakesoft.com>
1809 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
1810 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
1811 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
1812 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
1813 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
1814 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
1815 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
1816 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
1817 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
1818 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
1819 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
1820 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
1821 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
1822 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
1823 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
1825 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
1826 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
1827 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
1829 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
1830 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
1831 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
1832 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
1835 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
1837 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/8587d77c565f2d43>
1839 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
1841 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
1843 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/63a8c34385de82a1>
1845 What of October, that ambiguous month
1847 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1849 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
1851 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
1852 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
1853 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
1854 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
1855 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
1857 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
1859 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
1860 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
1862 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
1863 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
1864 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
1865 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
1867 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
1868 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
1869 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
1870 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
1871 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
1872 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
1873 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
1874 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
1876 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
1877 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
1879 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
1880 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
1881 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
1882 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
1883 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
1884 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
1885 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
1886 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
1887 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
1888 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
1890 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
1891 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
1892 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
1894 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
1895 pushing to increase the membership?
1897 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
1898 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
1899 futile and impotent it becomes.'
1901 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
1903 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
1904 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
1906 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1908 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg142422.html>
1910 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
1911 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
1912 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
1913 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
1914 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
1916 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
1917 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
1918 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
1919 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
1920 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
1923 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
1924 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
1925 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
1927 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
1928 redundancy payments as well.'
1930 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
1931 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
1933 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
1935 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
1937 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
1939 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
1940 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
1941 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
1944 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
1946 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
1947 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
1948 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
1949 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
1950 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
1951 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
1952 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
1954 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
1955 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
1956 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
1957 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
1958 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
1959 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
1960 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
1961 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
1963 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
1964 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
1966 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
1967 name like Charlie Umtali?
1969 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
1970 know something about our official visitor.
1972 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
1973 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
1974 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
1975 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
1976 knew little of his background.
1978 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
1979 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
1980 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
1982 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
1986 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
1987 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
1988 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
1990 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
1991 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
1993 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
1994 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
1995 revolving door and comes out in front.'
1997 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
1999 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
2001 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
2003 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
2005 L<Announced on 2006-02-01 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/28caf52e41ebe723>
2007 It's not that easy bein' green
2008 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
2009 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
2010 Or something much more colorful like that
2012 It's not easy bein' green
2013 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
2014 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
2015 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
2018 But green's the color of Spring
2019 And green can be cool and friendly-like
2020 And green can be big like an ocean
2021 Or important like a mountain
2024 When green is all there is to be
2025 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
2026 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
2027 And I think it's what I want to be
2029 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
2031 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/d231fc554af8cc51>
2033 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
2035 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
2037 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2039 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9a545704a0062f16>
2041 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
2042 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
2045 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
2046 the wolf? What then?"
2048 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2050 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
2052 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
2053 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
2054 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
2056 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
2057 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
2058 climbed up the high stone wall.
2060 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
2061 stretched out over the wall.
2063 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
2064 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
2065 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
2067 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
2068 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
2070 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
2071 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
2073 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
2075 L<Announced on 2004-11-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20041128000836.GA304@Bagpuss.unfortu.net>
2077 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
2080 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
2082 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
2083 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
2084 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
2086 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
2088 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
2091 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
2092 grow up into a beehive."
2094 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
2096 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
2097 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
2098 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
2100 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
2102 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
2103 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
2104 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
2106 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
2108 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
2110 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
2112 "Hunting," said Pooh.
2116 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
2118 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
2120 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
2122 "What do you think you'll answer?"
2124 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
2125 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
2128 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
2129 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
2131 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
2133 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/68340e2e4c39222c>
2135 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
2136 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
2137 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
2138 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
2139 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
2140 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
2143 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
2144 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
2145 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
2146 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
2147 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
2148 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
2149 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
2150 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
2151 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
2152 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
2154 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
2156 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/f92175725af7a5ad>
2158 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
2159 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
2160 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
2161 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
2162 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
2164 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
2165 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
2166 Caledonia and South America.
2168 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
2170 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/ca6ce4a7ed9f219c?pli=1>
2172 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
2173 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
2174 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
2175 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
2176 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
2177 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
2178 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
2180 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
2181 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
2182 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
2183 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
2185 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
2186 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
2187 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
2188 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
2190 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
2191 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
2193 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
2195 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/c7333acf03ef4015>
2197 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
2198 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
2199 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
2200 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
2202 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
2203 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
2204 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
2205 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
2206 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
2207 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
2208 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
2209 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
2211 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
2212 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
2215 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
2217 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/84f6fdd73cc56a1b>
2219 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
2220 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
2221 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
2222 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
2224 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
2225 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
2226 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
2227 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
2228 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
2229 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
2231 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
2233 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e500353440769ebf>
2235 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
2236 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
2237 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
2238 We must find him of the train can't start.'
2239 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
2240 They are searching high and low,
2241 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
2242 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
2243 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
2244 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
2245 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
2246 He's been busy in the luggage van!
2247 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
2248 And the signal goes 'All Clear!'
2249 And we're off at last of the northern part
2250 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
2252 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
2254 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/968fb8d71e23af69>
2256 We are the music makers,
2257 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
2258 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
2259 And sitting by desolate streams; --
2260 World-losers and world-forsakers,
2261 On whom the pale moon gleams:
2262 Yet we are the movers and shakers
2263 Of the world for ever, it seems.
2265 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
2267 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/5ced50bebcd11c96>
2269 There may be trouble ahead,
2270 But while there's music and moonlight,
2271 And love and romance,
2272 Let's face the music and dance.
2274 Before the fiddlers have fled,
2275 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
2276 And while we still have that chance,
2277 Let's face the music and dance.
2279 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
2280 Humming a different tune, and then,
2282 There may be teardrops to shed,
2283 So while there's music and moonlight,
2284 And love and romance,
2285 Let's face the music and dance.
2287 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
2289 L<Announced on 2003-11-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/4714574f93967673>
2291 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
2292 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
2293 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
2294 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
2295 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
2296 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
2298 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
2299 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
2300 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
2301 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
2304 O farther farther sail!
2305 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
2306 O farther, farther, farther sail!
2308 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
2310 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/7669de5804b792f6>
2312 It's fun to charter an accountant
2313 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
2314 To find, explore the funds offshore
2315 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
2317 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
2319 L<Announced on 2003-10-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83680ef3bbf7378d>
2321 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
2322 In a Sieve they went to sea:
2323 In spite of all their friends could say,
2324 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
2325 In a Sieve they went to sea!
2326 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
2327 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
2328 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
2329 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
2330 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
2332 Far and few, far and few,
2333 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
2334 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
2335 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
2337 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
2339 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
2341 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
2343 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
2345 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
2346 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
2347 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
2348 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
2349 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
2351 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2353 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
2355 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
2356 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
2357 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
2358 then you can be my most trusted minister."
2360 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2362 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
2364 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
2365 a knife with a curved blade.
2367 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2369 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
2371 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
2372 me because I've got magic aaargh."
2374 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2376 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
2378 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
2379 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
2382 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
2383 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
2384 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
2385 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
2386 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
2387 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
2389 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
2391 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
2393 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
2394 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
2395 said the low priest.
2396 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
2397 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
2398 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
2399 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
2400 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
2401 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
2402 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
2403 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
2404 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
2405 said the High Priest.
2406 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
2407 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
2408 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
2409 There were footsteps again.
2411 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2413 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
2415 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
2417 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
2419 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
2421 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
2423 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
2425 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
2427 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
2428 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
2429 got there first, and is waiting for it.
2431 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
2433 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
2435 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
2436 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
2437 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
2438 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
2439 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
2441 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
2443 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
2445 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
2447 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
2449 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
2450 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
2451 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
2452 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
2453 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
2454 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
2455 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
2456 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
2457 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
2458 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
2460 "All that?" said Twoflower.
2464 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
2466 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
2468 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
2469 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
2470 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
2472 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2474 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/deb8cb9ad918716f>
2476 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
2477 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
2478 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
2479 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
2480 long in this instance.
2482 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2484 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e3d4acc7a8dd3ce5>
2486 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
2488 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
2490 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
2492 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
2493 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
2496 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
2497 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
2499 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
2500 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
2503 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
2504 my precious, three guesseses.'
2506 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
2508 L<Announced on 2001-08-04 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
2510 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
2512 No announcement available.
2514 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
2516 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
2518 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
2520 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
2522 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
2524 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
2526 The dragon is withered,
2527 His bones are now crumbled;
2528 His armour is shivered,
2529 His splendour is humbled!
2530 Though sword shall be rusted,
2531 And throne and crown perish
2532 With strength that men trusted
2533 And wealth that they cherish,
2534 Here grass is still growing,
2535 And leaves are a yet swinging,
2536 The white water flowing,
2537 And elves are yet singing
2538 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
2539 Come back to the valley.
2541 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2543 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
2545 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
2547 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
2549 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
2551 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6c240ad0b189cb47>
2553 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
2555 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83e5421124a7b49d>
2557 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
2558 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
2559 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
2560 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
2561 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
2562 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
2563 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
2564 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
2565 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
2566 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
2569 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2571 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6aaeb6ec699bd116>
2573 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
2574 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
2575 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
2576 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
2577 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
2578 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
2579 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
2580 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
2581 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
2582 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
2585 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
2587 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9281dc6194d15940>
2589 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2591 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
2592 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
2593 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>