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 v5.21.6 - Jeff Noon, Vurt
22 L<Announced on 2014-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/11/msg222448.html>
26 EXCHANGE MECHANISMS. Sometimes we lose precious
27 things. Friends and colleagues, fellow travellers in the
28 Vurt, sometimes we lose them; even lovers we sometimes
29 lose. And get bad things in exchange: aliens, objects,
30 snakes, and sometimes even death. Things we don't want.
31 This is part of the deal, part of the game deal;
32 all things, in all worlds, must be kept in balance.
33 Kittlings often ask, who decides on the swappings? Now then,
34 some say it's all accidental; that some poor Vurt thing
35 finds himself too close to a door, at too critical a time,
36 just when something real is being lost. Whoosh! Swap time!
37 Others say that some kind of overseer is working the
38 MECHANISMS OF EXCHANGE, deciding the fate of innocents.
39 The Cat can only tease at this, because of the big secrets
40 involved, and because of the levels between you, the reader,
41 and me, the Game Cat. Hey, listen; I've struggled to get
42 where I am today; why should I give you the easy route?
43 Get working, kittlings! Reach up higher. Work the Vurt.
45 =head2 v5.21.5 - Friso Wiegersma (text), Jean Ferrat (music), Wim Sonneveld (performer), Het Dorp
47 L<Announced on 2014-10-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/10/msg221399.html>
51 Thuis heb ik nog een ansichtkaart
52 waarop een kerk, een kar met paard,
53 een slagerij J. van der Ven.
54 Een kroeg, een juffrouw op de fiets
55 het zegt u hoogstwaarschijnlijk niets,
56 maar 't is waar ik geboren ben.
57 Dit dorp, ik weet nog hoe het was,
58 de boerenkind'ren in de klas,
59 een kar die ratelt op de keien,
60 het raadhuis met een pomp ervoor,
61 een zandweg tussen koren door,
62 het vee, de boerderijen.
64 En langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
65 zag ik de hoge bomen staan.
66 Ik was een kind en wist niet beter,
67 dan dat dat nooit voorbij zou gaan.
69 Wat leefden ze eenvoudig toen
70 in simp'le huizen tussen groen
71 met boerenbloemen en een heg.
72 Maar blijkbaar leefden ze verkeerd,
73 het dorp is gemoderniseerd
74 en nu zijn ze op de goeie weg.
75 Want ziet, hoe rijk het leven is,
76 ze zien de televisiequiz
77 en wonen in betonnen dozen,
78 met flink veel glas, dan kun je zien
79 hoe of het bankstel staat bij Mien
80 en d'r dressoir met plastic rozen.
82 En langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
83 zag ik de hoge bomen staan.
84 Ik was een kind en wist niet beter,
85 dan dat dat nooit voorbij zou gaan.
87 De dorpsjeugd klit wat bij elkaar
88 in minirok en beatle-haar
89 en joelt wat mee met beat-muziek.
90 Ik weet wel, het is hun goeie recht,
91 de nieuwe tijd, net wat u zegt,
92 maar het maakt me wat melancholiek.
93 Ik heb hun vaders nog gekend
94 ze kochten zoethout voor een cent
95 ik zag hun moeders touwtjespringen.
96 Dat dorp van toen, het is voorbij,
97 dit is al wat er bleef voor mij:
98 een ansicht en herinneringen.
100 Toen ik langs het tuinpad van m'n vader
101 de hoge bomen nog zag staan.
102 Ik was een kind, hoe kon ik weten
103 dat dat voorgoed voorbij zou gaan.
105 =head2 v5.21.4 - Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
107 L<Announced on 2014-09-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg220267.html>
109 To-day, being in latitude 83° 20', longitude 43° 5' W. (the sea being
110 of an extraordinarily dark colour), we again saw land from the
111 masthead, and, upon a closer scrutiny, found it to be one of a group
112 of very large islands. The shore was precipitous, and the interior
113 seemed to be well wooded, a circumstance which occasioned us great
114 joy. In about four hours from our first discovering the land we came
115 to anchor in ten fathoms, sandy bottom, a league from the coast, as a
116 high surf, with strong ripples here and there, rendered a nearer
117 approach of doubtful expediency. The two largest boats were now
118 ordered out, and a party, well armed (among whome were Peters and
119 myself), proceeded to look for an opening in the reef which appeared
120 to encircle the island. After searching about for some time, we
121 discovered an inlet, which we were entering, when we saw four large
122 canoes put off from the shore, filled with men who seemed to be well
123 armed. We waited for them to come up, and, as they moved with great
124 rapidity, they were soon within hail. Captain Guy now held up a white
125 handkerchief on the blade of an oar, when the strangers made a full
126 stop, and commenced a loud jabbering all at once, intermingled with
127 occasional shouts, in which we could distinguish the words Anamoo-moo!
128 and Lama-Lama! They continued this for at least half an hour, during
129 which we had a good opportunity of observing their appearance.
131 =head2 v5.20.1 - Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan tutte
133 L<Announced on 2014-09-14 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg219789.html>
135 DORABELLA (as if waking from a daze): Where are they?
136 DON ALFONSO: They've gone.
137 FIORDILIGI: Oh, the cruel bitterness of parting!
140 Take heart, my dearest children.
141 Look, in the distance, your lovers are waving to you.
143 FIORDILIGI: Bon voyage, my darling!
144 DORABELLA: Bon voyage!
147 O heavens! How swiftly the ship is sailing away!
148 It is disappearing already!
149 It is no longer in sight!
150 Oh, may heaven grant it a prosperous voyage!
152 DORABELLA: May good luck attend it to the battlefield!
153 DON ALFONSO: And may your sweethearts and my friends be safe!
155 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA, DON ALFONSO:
156 May the wind be gentle,
162 -- Lorenzo da Ponte, /Così fan tutte/,
165 =head2 v5.20.1-RC2 - Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan tutte
167 L<Announced on 2014-09-07 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/09/msg219446.html>
170 Oh God, I feel that this foot of mine
171 is reluctant to come before her.
178 The hero displays his manliness
179 in the most terrible moments.
181 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA:
182 Now that we have heard the news,
183 you have the lesser duty:
184 Take heart, and plunge your swords
185 into both our hearts.
189 that I must abandon you.
191 DORABELLA: Ah no, you shall not leave...
192 FIORDILIGI: No, cruel one, you shall not go...
193 DORABELLA: First I want to tear out my heart.
194 FIORDILIGI: First I want to die at your feet.
195 FERRANDO (softly to Don Alfonso): What do you say to that?
196 GUGLIELMO (softly to Don Alfonso): You realise?
197 DON ALFONSO (softly): Steady, friend, finem lauda.
200 Thus destiny defrauds
201 the hopes of mortals.
202 Ah, among so many misfortunes,
203 who can ever love life?
205 -- Lorenzo da Ponte, /Così fan tutte/,
206 trans. William Weaver
208 =head2 v5.20.1-RC1 - Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan tutte
210 L<Announced on 2014-08-25 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/08/msg218975.html>
213 I'd like to speak, but I haven't the heart:
215 My voice cannot emerge,
216 but remains in my throat.
217 What will you do? What shall I do?
218 Oh what a great catastrophe!
219 There can be nothing worse.
220 I feel pity for you and for them.
222 FIORDILIGI: Heavens! For mercy's sake, Signor Alfonso, don't make us
224 DON ALFONSO: My children, you must arm yourselves with constancy.
225 DORABELLA: Ye Gods! What evil has occurred? What horrible event? Is my
227 FIORDILIGI: Is mine dead?
228 DON ALFONSO: They are not dead, but they are not far from it.
232 DON ALFONSO: Nor that.
233 FIORDILIGI: What, then?
234 DON ALFONSO: A royal command summons them to the field of battle.
235 FIORDILIGI, DORABELLA: Alas, what do I hear? And they will leave?
236 DON ALFONSO: Immediately.
237 DORABELLA: And there is no way of preventing it?
238 DON ALFONSO: There is none.
239 FIORDILIGI: And not even a single farewell...
240 DON ALFONSO: The unhappy men haven't the courage to see you; but if
241 you wish it, they are ready...
242 DORABELLA: Where are they?
243 DON ALFONSO: Come in, friends.
245 -- Lorenzo da Ponte, /Così fan tutte/,
246 trans. William Weaver
248 =head2 v5.21.3 - Robert Service, The Men that Don't Fit In
250 L<Announced on 2014-08-20 by Peter Martini|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/08/msg218826.html>
252 If they just went straight they might go far,
253 They are strong and brave and true;
254 But they're always tired of the things that are,
255 And they want the strange and new.
256 They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
257 What a deep mark I would make!"
258 So they chop and change, and each fresh move
259 Is only a fresh mistake.
261 =head2 v5.21.2 - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Final minutes of communication of the first manned moon landing, July 20, 1969.
263 L<Announced on 2014-07-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/07/msg217937.html>
265 Armstrong: Okay. Here's a...Looks like a good area here.
266 Aldrin: I got the shadow out there.
267 Aldrin: 250, down at 2 1/2, 19 forward.
268 Aldrin: Altitude, velocity lights.
269 Aldrin: 3 1/2 down, 220 feet, 13 forward.
270 Aldrin: 11 forward. Coming down nicely.
271 Armstrong: Gonna be right over that crater.
272 Aldrin: 200 feet, 4 1/2 down.
274 Armstrong: I got a good spot [garbled].
275 Aldrin: 160 feet, 6 1/2 down.
276 Aldrin: 5 1/2 down, 9 forward. You're looking good.
278 Aldrin: 100 feet, 3 1/2 down, 9 forward. Five percent. Quantity light.
279 Aldrin: Okay. 75 feet. And it's looking good. Down a half, 6 forward.
282 Aldrin: 60 feet, down 2 1/2. 2 forward. 2 forward. That's good.
283 Aldrin: 40 feet, down 2 1/2. Picking up some dust.
284 Aldrin: 30 feet, 2 1/2 down. [Garbled] shadow.
285 Aldrin: 4 forward. 4 forward. Drifting to the right a little. 20 feet,
288 Aldrin: Drifting forward just a little bit; that's good.
289 Aldrin: Contact Light.
291 Aldrin: Okay. Engine Stop.
292 Aldrin: ACA out of Detent.
293 Armstrong: Out of Detent. Auto.
294 Aldrin: Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off.
295 Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.
296 Duke: We copy you down, Eagle.
297 Armstrong: Engine arm is off.
298 Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
299 Duke: Roger, Twan...[correcting himself] Tranquility. We copy you on
300 the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
301 We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.
304 =head2 v5.21.1 - Robert Jordan, The Crossroads of Twilights, Book 10 of the Wheel of Time
306 L<Announced on 2014-06-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/06/msg217030.html>
308 We rode on the winds of the rising storm,
309 We ran to the sounds of the thunder.
310 We danced among the lightning bolts,
311 and tore the world asunder.
313 -- Anonymous fragment of a poem believed
314 written near the end of the previous Age,
315 known by some as the Third Age.
316 Sometimes attributed to the Dragon
319 =head2 v5.21.0 - Friedrich von Schiller, The Song of the Bell
321 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215826.html>
323 Walled in fast within the earth
324 Stands the form burnt out of clay.
325 This must be the bell’s great birth!
326 Fellows, lend a hand to-day.
327 Sweat must trickle now
328 From the burning brow,
329 Till the work its master honour.
330 Blessing comes from Heaven’s Donor.
332 =head2 v5.20.0 - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
334 L<Announced on 2014-05-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215815.html>
336 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
337 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
338 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
339 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
340 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
341 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
343 -- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
345 =head2 v5.20.0-RC1 - Lindsey Buckingham, "Second Hand News"
347 L<Announced on 2014-05-17 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/05/msg215479.html>
351 Won't you lay me down in tall grass
352 And let me do my stuff
354 -- Lindsey Buckingham, "Second Hand News"
356 =head2 v5.19.11 - Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror
358 L<Announced on 2014-04-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/04/msg214580.html>
360 O rigorous mathematics, I have not forgotten you since your wise lessons,
361 sweeter than honey, filtered into my heart like a refreshing wave.
362 Instinctively, from the cradle, I had longed to drink from your source, older
363 than the sun, and I continue to tread the sacred sanctuary of your solemn
364 temple, I, the most faithful of your devotees. There was a vagueness in my
365 mind, something thick as smoke; but I managed to mount the steps which lead to
366 your altar, and you drove away this dark veil, as the wind blows the
367 draught-board. You replaced it with excessive coldness, consummate prudence and
368 implacable logic. With the aid of your fortifying milk, my intellect developed
369 rapidly and took on immense proportions amid the ravishing lucidity which you
370 bestow as a gift on all those who sincerely love you. Arithmetic! Algebra!
371 Geometry! Awe-inspiring trinity! Luminous triangle! He who has not known you
374 -- Isidore-Lucien Ducasse [as "Comte de Lautréamont"],
375 /Les Chants de Maldoror/, trans. Paul Knight
377 =head2 v5.19.10 - John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B
379 L<Announced on 2014-03-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/03/msg213851.html>
381 The urge to discover secrets is deeply ingrained in human nature; even
382 the least curious mind is roused by the promise of sharing knowledge
383 withheld from others. Some are fortunate enough to find a job which
384 consists in the solution of mysteries, whether it be the physicist who
385 tracks down a hitherto unknown nuclear particle or the policeman who
386 detects a criminal. But most of us are driven to sublimate this urge
387 by the solving of artificial puzzles devised for our entertainment.
389 =head2 v5.19.9 - R. A. MacAvoy, Tea with the Black Dragon
391 L<Announced on 2014-02-20 by Tony Cook|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/02/msg213047.html>
393 Old hands. The smell of rain--the smell of Ch'an. Quiet words in
394 rough Cantonese. "I am not to be your master. Your master has to be
395 stronger than you are--has to tell you you are a fool and make you
396 know it. And make you feel content in being a fool. How could I do
397 that for you? I'm old. You are too strong for me; you are full of
398 chi." The old man has paused then, huddled against the wind while
399 clouds thickened above them.
401 "I will tell you this, Long," he continued, "Before you find yourself
402 you will lose your chi. Also you will leave behind you all pride of
403 body, pride of mind. You will be reduced. Like me." The old man
404 closed his eyes, and rain began to beat against his gray, crew-cut
405 hair. He pulled his coat closer. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and
406 he looked Long in the face.
408 "You must leave China. Go across the ocean. There you will meet your
409 master." He set down his teacup with a palsied hand. His voice rose,
412 "I tell you this, most honored and impressive visitor. You are a
413 fool, yes, but you will find the very thing you seek. You will find
416 =head2 v5.19.8 - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
418 L<Announced on 2014-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211729.html>
420 “I used to get a big kick out of saving people’s lives. Now I wonder what the
421 hell’s the point, since they all have to die anyway.”
423 “Oh, there’s a point, all right,” Dunbar assured him.
425 “Is there? What is the point?”
427 “The point is to keep them from dying for as long as you can.”
429 “Yeah, but what’s the point, since they all have to die anyway?”
431 “The trick is not to think about that.”
433 “Never mind the trick. What the hell’s the point?”
435 Dunbar pondered in silence for a few moments. “Who the hell knows?”
437 =head2 v5.19.7 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five"
439 L<Announced on 2013-12-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/12/msg210882.html>
443 And somewhere in there was springtime. The corpse mines were closed
444 down. The soldiers all left to fight the Russians. In the suburbs,
445 the women and children dug rifle pits. Billy and the rest of his group
446 were locked up in the stable in the suburbs. And then, one morning,
447 they got up to discover that the door was unlocked. World War Two in
450 Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were
451 leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any
452 kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two
453 horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped.
457 One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Pee-tee-weet?"
461 =head2 v5.19.6 - Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Spam"
463 L<Announced on 2013-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/11/msg210043.html>
467 Interior: cheap cafe. All the customers are Vikings. Mr and Mrs Bun enter downwards (on wires).
471 Mr. Bun: What have you got, then?
472 Waitress: Well there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam;
473 egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam;
474 spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam;
475 or lobster thermidor aux crevettes, with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried
477 Mrs. Bun: Have you got anything without spam in it?
478 Waitress: Well, there's spam, egg, sausage and spam. That's not got MUCH spam in it.
479 Mrs. Bun: I don't want ANY spam.
480 Mr. Bun: Why can't she have egg, bacon, spam and sausage?
481 Mrs. Bun: That's got spam in it!
482 Mr. Bun: Not as much as spam, egg, sausage and spam.
483 Mrs. Bun: Look, could I have egg, bacon, spam and sausage, without the spam.
484 Waitress: Uuuuuuggggh!
485 Mrs. Bun: What d'you mean, uugggh! I don't like spam.
486 Vikings: (singing) Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam ... spam, spam, spam, spam ... lovely spam, wonderful spam ...
488 (Brief shot of a Viking ship)
490 Waitress: Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! You can't have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
492 Waitress: No, it wouldn't be egg, bacon, spam and sausage, would it?
493 Mrs. Bun: I don't like spam!
497 =head2 v5.19.5 - Charles Baudelaire, "The Flowers of Evil", 51. The Cat
499 L<Announced on 2013-10-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/10/msg208752.html>
505 A cat is strolling through my mind
506 Acting as though he owned the place,
507 A lovely cat -- strong, charming, sweet.
508 When he meows, one scarcely hears,
510 So tender and discreet his tone;
511 But whether he should growl or purr
512 His voice is always rich and deep.
513 That is the secret of his charm.
515 This purling voice that filters down
516 Into my darkest depths of soul
517 Fulfils me like a balanced verse,
518 Delights me as a potion would.
520 It puts to sleep the cruellest ills
521 And keeps a rein on ecstasies --
522 Without the need for any words
523 It can pronounce the longest phrase.
525 Oh no, there is no bow that draws
526 Across my heart, fine instrument,
527 And makes to sing so royally
528 The strongest and the purest chord,
530 More than your voice, mysterious cat,
531 Exotic cat, seraphic cat,
532 In whom all is, angelically,
533 As subtle as harmonious.
537 From his soft fur, golden and brown,
538 Goes out so sweet a scent, one night
539 I might have been embalmed in it
540 By giving him one little pet.
542 He is my household's guardian soul;
543 He judges, he presides, inspires
544 All matters in hos royal realm;
545 Might he be fairy? or a god?
547 When my eyes, to this cat I love
548 Drawn as by a magnet's force,
549 Turn tamely back from that appeal,
550 And when I look within myself,
552 I notice with astonishment
553 The fire of his opal eyes,
554 Clear beacons glowing, living jewels,
555 Taking my measure, steadily.
557 -- Charles Baudelaire, /The Flowers of Evil, 51. The Cat/,
562 =head2 v5.19.4 - Washington Irving, "The Widow and Her Son"
564 L<Announced on 2013-09-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/09/msg207969.html>
568 There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood;
569 that softens the heart and brings it back to the feelings of infancy.
570 Who that has languished, even in advanced life, in sickness and
571 despondency — who that has pined on a weary bed in the neglect and
572 loneliness of a foreign land — but has thought on the mother "that
573 looked on his childhood," that smoothed his pillow and administered to
574 his helplessness. — Oh! there is an enduring tenderness in the love
575 of a mother to her son that transcends all other affections of the
576 heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness — nor daunted by
577 danger — nor weakened by worthlessness — nor stifled by ingratitude.
578 She will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience — she will
579 surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment — she will glory in his fame
580 and exult in his prosperity. And if misfortune overtake him he will
581 be the dearer to her from misfortune — and if disgrace settle upon his
582 name, she will still love and cherish him in spite of his disgrace —
583 and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to
588 =head2 v5.19.3 - Andrew Hodges, "Alan Turing: The Enigma"
590 L<Announced on 2013-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg206318.html>
594 E.M. Forster, outdoing the King's heresy with grand bravura, had
595 written in 1938 that if he were faced with the choice between
596 betraying his country and betraying his friends, he hoped he would
597 have the courage to betray his country. He would always put the
598 personal above the political. But for Alan Turing, unlike Forster, or
599 Wittgenstein, or G.H. Hardy, it was more than a theoretical question.
600 For him not only had the personal become the political, but the
601 political was the personal. He had chosen and promised for himself in
602 working for the government. The choice for him therefore was that
603 between betraying one part of himself and betraying another part. And
604 however much he wavered between these alternatives, there was a solid
605 logic to the mind of security, one that could not be expected to take
606 an interest in notions of freedom and development. He had no rights
607 to such things, as he would have had to admit. He might have
608 outwitted the Home Guard, but when it came to questions that mattered,
609 there was no doubt that he had placed himself under military law.
610 There was a war on; there was always a war on now.
614 =head2 v5.19.2 - Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month"
616 L<Announced on 2013-07-22 by Aristotle Pagaltzis|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/07/msg204905.html>
620 The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the
621 correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life,
622 showing things that never were nor could be. [...] Not all is delight,
623 however [...] One must perform perfectly. The computer resembles the
624 magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of
625 the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn't work.
629 =head2 v5.19.1 - William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
631 L<Announced on 2013-06-21 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/06/msg203449.html>
633 Over hill, over dale,
634 Thorough bush, thorough briar,
635 Over park, over pale,
636 Thorough flood, thorough fire,
637 I do wander everywhere,
638 Swifter than the moon's sphere;
639 And I serve the fairy queen,
640 To dew her orbs upon the green.
641 The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
642 In their gold coats, spots you see;
643 Those be rubies, fairy favours,
644 In their freckles live our savours.
645 I must go seek some dew-drops here,
646 And hang a perl in every cowslip's ear.
647 Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone;
648 My queen and all her elves come here anon!
650 =head2 v5.19.0 - Batman, of the Joker, in "The Dark Knight Returns"
652 L<Announced on 2013-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201980.html>
654 From the beginning, I knew…
655 …that there was nothing wrong with you…
659 =head2 v5.18.4 - Robert W. Chambers, "The King in Yellow"
661 L<Announced on 2014-10-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/10/msg220770.html>
663 Along the shore the cloud waves break,
664 The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
668 Strange is the night where black stars rise,
669 And strange moons circle through the skies
670 But stranger still is
673 Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
674 Where flap the tatters of the King,
678 Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
679 Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
683 -- Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow," Act i, Scene 2.
686 =head2 v5.18.3 - (no epigraph)
690 =head2 v5.18.3-RC2 - Robert W. Chambers, "The King in Yellow"
692 L<Announced on 2014-09-27|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/220613>
694 "Ah! I see it now!" I shrieked. "You have seized the throne and the
695 empire. Woe! woe to you who are crowned with the crown of the King in
698 -- Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.
700 =head2 v5.18.3-RC1 - Robert W. Chambers, "The King in Yellow"
702 L<Announced on 2014-09-17|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/220072>
704 CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.
708 CASSILDA: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
710 STRANGER: I wear no mask.
712 CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
714 -- Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.
716 =head2 v5.18.2 - Miss Manners
718 L<Announced on 2014-01-06 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2014/01/msg211224.html>
720 One of the major mistakes people make is that they think manners are
721 only the expression of happy ideas. There's a whole range of behavior
722 that can be expressed in a mannerly way. That's what civilization is all
723 about – doing it in a mannerly and not an antagonistic way. One of the
724 places we went wrong was the naturalistic Rousseauean movement of the
725 Sixties in which people said, "Why can't you just say what's on your
726 mind?" In civilization there have to be some restraints. If we followed
727 every impulse, we'd be killing one another.
729 =head2 v5.18.1 - Chuck Moore
731 L<Announced on 2013-08-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205897.html>
733 The operating system is another concept that is curious. Operating
734 systems are dauntingly complex and totally unnecessary. It’s a brilliant
735 thing that Bill Gates has done in selling the world on the notion of
736 operating systems. It’s probably the greatest con game the world has
739 An operating system does absolutely nothing for you. As long as you had
740 something — a subroutine called disk driver, a subroutine called some
741 kind of communication support, in the modern world, it doesn’t do
742 anything else. In fact, Windows spends a lot of time with overlays and
743 disk management all stuff like that which are irrelevant. You’ve got
744 gigabyte disks; you’ve got megabyte RAMs. The world has changed in a way
745 that renders the operating system unnecessary.
747 =head2 v5.18.1-RC1 - Chuck Moore
749 L<Announced on 2013-08-02 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/08/msg205445.html>
751 Compilers are probably the worst code ever written. They are written by
752 someone who has never written a compiler before and will never do so
753 again. The more elaborate the language, the more complex, bug-ridden,
754 and unusable is the compiler. But a simple compiler for a simple
755 language is an essential tool—if only for documentation.
757 =head2 v5.18.0 - Yevgeny Zamyatin
759 L<Announced on 2013-05-18 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201940.html>
761 It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people
762 who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write,
763 walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes,
764 and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in
765 search, in questions, in torment.
767 =head2 v5.18.0-RC4 - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
769 L<Announced on 2013-04-16 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201889.html>
771 Clevinger was dead. That was the basic flaw in his philosophy.
773 =head2 v5.18.0-RC3 - Tom Waits, "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me"
775 L<Announced on 2013-04-14 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201823.html>
777 I'd love to go drowning
778 And to stay and to stay
779 But the ocean doesn't want me today
780 I'll go in up to here
781 It can't possibly hurt
782 All they will find is my beer
785 =head2 v5.18.0-RC2 - Tom Waits, "Earth Died Screaming"
787 L<Announced on 2013-05-12 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201723.html>
789 And the great day of wrath has come
790 And here's mud in your big red eye
791 The poker's in the fire
792 And the locusts take the sky
793 And the earth died screaming
794 While I lay dreaming of you
796 =head2 v5.18.0-RC1 - Tom Waits, "What's He Building in There?"
798 L<Announced on 2013-05-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/05/msg201651.html>
800 What's he building in there?
802 We have a right to know…
804 =head2 v5.17.11 - Nigel Tufnel, This is Spın̈al Tap
806 L<Announced on 2013-04-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2013/04/msg201056.html>
808 It's very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to…
809 eleven! Look, right across the board: eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven!
811 =head2 v5.17.10 - Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon The Deep
813 L<Announced on 2013-03-22 by Max Maischein|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00908.html>
815 The archive informed the automation. Data structures were built, recipes
816 followed. A local network was built, faster than anything on Straum, but surely
817 safe. Nodes were added, modified by other recipes. The archive was a friendly
818 place, with hierarchies of translation keys that led them along. Straum itself
819 would be famous for this.
821 Six months passed. A year.
823 The omniscient view. Not self-aware really. Self-awareness is much over-rated.
824 Most automation works far better as a part of a whole, and even if human-
825 powerful, it does not need to self-know.
827 =head2 v5.16.3 - Devo, Freedom of Choice
829 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00414.html>
831 A victim of collision on the open sea
832 Nobody ever said that life was free
833 Sink, swim, go down with the ship
834 But use your freedom of choice
836 =head2 v5.14.4 - Arthur C. Clarke, The Nine Billion Names of God
838 L<Announced on 2013-03-11 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-03/msg00393.html>
840 He began to sing, but gave it up after a while. This vast arena of
841 mountains, gleaming like whitely hooded ghosts on every side, did not
842 encourage such ebullience. Presently George glanced at his watch.
844 'Should be there in an hour,' he called back over his shoulder to
845 Chuck. Then he added, in an afterthought: 'Wonder if the computer's
846 finished its run. It was due about now.'
848 Chuck didn't reply, so George swung round in his saddle. He could just
849 see Chuck's face, a white oval turned towards the sky.
851 'Look,' whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There
852 is always a last time for everything.)
854 Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
857 =head2 v5.17.9 - Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
859 L<Announced on 2013-02-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-02/msg01146.html>
861 Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.
862 The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a
863 recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of
864 his poem 'Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My
865 Armpit One Midsummer Morning' four of his audience died
866 of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the
867 Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one
868 of his own legs off. Grunthos is reported to have been
869 'disappointed' by the poem's reception, and was about to
870 embark on a reading of his twelve-book epic entitled
871 'My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles' when his own major intestine,
872 in a desperate attempt to save life and civilisation,
873 leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.
875 The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator
876 Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England,
877 in the destruction of the planet Earth.
879 =head2 v5.17.8 - Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost
881 L<Announced on 2013-01-20 by Aaron Crane|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2013-01/msg00518.html>
883 I must here declare myself as someone who does not for a moment subscribe to
884 the general view that a willingness to perform oneself is detrimental to the
885 dignity of experimental philosophy. There is, after all, a clear distinction
886 between labour carried out for financial reward, and that done for the
887 improvement of mankind: to put it another way, Lower as a philosopher was
888 fully my equal even if he fell away when he became the practising physician.
889 I think ridiculous of certain professors of anatomy, who find it beneath
890 them to pick up the knife themselves, but merely comment while hired hands
891 do the cutting. Sylvius would never have dreamt of sitting on a dais reading
892 from an authority while others cut — when he taught, the knife was
893 in his hand and the blood spattered his coat. Boyle also did not scruple to
894 perform his own experiments and, on one occasion in my presence, even showed
895 himself willing to anatomise a rat with his very own hands. Nor was he less
896 a gentleman when he had finished. Indeed, in my opinion, his stature was all
897 the greater, for in Boyle wealth, humility and curiosity mingled, and the
898 world is richer for it.
900 =head2 v5.17.7 - R. Scott Bakker, The Darkness That Comes Before
902 L<Announced on 2012-12-18 by Dave Rolsky|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-12/msg00679.html>
905 The boy extinguished. Only a place.
907 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.
908 A place without breath or sound. A place of sight alone. A place without before or after . . . almost.
909 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.
910 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 . . .
911 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.
912 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.
913 I have been legion . . .
914 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.
917 =head2 v5.17.6 - Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
919 L<Announced on 2012-11-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00760.html>
921 Beatrice, looking like a gypsy queen, smoldered at the foot of a statue
922 of a young physical student. At first glance, the laboratory-gowned
923 scientist seemed to be a perfect servant of nothing but truth. At first
924 glance, one was convinced that nothing but truth could please him as he
925 beamed at his test tube. At first glance, one thought that he was as
926 much above the beastly concerns of mankind as the harmoniums in the
927 caves of Mercury. There, at first glance, was a young man without
928 vanity, without lust — and one accepted at its face value the title Salo
929 had engraved on the statue, "Discovery of Atomic Power."
931 =head2 v5.12.5 - William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
933 Announced on 2012-11-10 by Dominic Hargreaves
935 Music oft hath such a charm
936 To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
938 =head2 v5.16.2 - Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad, Trurl's Machine
940 L<Announced on 2012-11-01 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-11/msg00017.html>
942 Once upon a time Trurl the constructor built an eight-story thinking
943 machine. When it was finished, he gave it a coat of white paint,
944 trimmed the edges in lavender, stepped back, squinted, then added a
945 little curlicue on the front and, where one might imagine the forehead
946 to be, a few pale orange polkadots. Extremely pleased with himself,
947 he whistled an air and, as is always done on such occasions, asked it
948 the ritual question of how much is two plus two.
950 The machine stirred. Its tubes began to glow, its coils warmed up,
951 current coursed through all its circuits like a waterfall,
952 transformers hummed and throbbed, there was a clanging, and a
953 chugging, and such an ungodly racket that Trurl began to think of
954 adding a special mentation muffler. Meanwhile the machine labored on,
955 as if it had been given the most difficult problem in the Universe to
956 solve; the ground shook, the sand slid underfoot from the vibration,
957 valves popped like champagne corks, the relays nearly gave way under
958 the strain. At last, when Trurl had grown extremely impatient, the
959 machine ground to a halt and said in a voice like thunder: SEVEN!
961 =head2 v5.17.5 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
963 L<Announced on 2012-10-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-10/msg01007.html>
965 Neither of them noticed the pair of polka-dotted knickers hiding
966 behind the ventilation duct overhead, listening patiently and
967 recording everything.
969 =head2 v5.17.4 - Roald Dahl, "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
971 L<Announced on 2012-09-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-09/msg01226.html>
973 The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
974 She whips a pistol from her knickers.
975 She aims it at the creature's head,
976 And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
978 A few weeks later, in the wood,
979 I came across Miss Riding Hood.
980 But what a change! No cloak of red,
981 No silly hood upon her head.
982 She said, "Hello, and do please note
983 My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
985 =head2 v5.17.3 - Kris Ta-belle, "Smoked Perl Onion Soup"
987 L<Announced on 2012-08-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/08/msg190775.html>
991 Cut 16 Perl Onions into quarters and put them in a grill smoker rack
992 or a perforated pan over a BBQ using hickory wood chips or Special
993 Blend Smoker Bisquettes. Smoke them for an hour and remove once they
995 Let them cool and put them in the fridge (or freezer) until you are
996 ready to create the soup.
1000 16 diced, pre-smoked, Perl Onions
1003 2 small garlic cloves, finely minced
1006 black pepper to taste
1008 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1009 6 cups of beef or vegetable stock
1010 1 cup of thick cream (milk can be used as a substitute)
1014 Melt the butter in a pan and then add olive oil.
1015 Heat and add the onions to caramelize over a medium-high heat for up
1017 Add the garlic, turn down the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
1018 Add the salt, pepper and sugar.
1019 Now add the red wine and reduce to a jam like consistency.
1020 Add the flour, stir well and add the stock a cup at a time.
1021 Simmer for 30 minutes, add the cream and heat to almost boiling.
1025 =head2 v5.17.2 - Terry Pratchet, "The Colour of Magic"
1027 L<Announced on 2012-07-21 by TonyC|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/07/msg189828.html>
1029 ‘I knew it,’ said Rincewind. ‘We're in a strong magical field.’
1031 Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made
1032 their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
1034 The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow
1035 butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme
1036 and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
1038 Hrun shrugged and went back to oiling his biceps. They gleamed.
1040 ‘Looks alright to me,’ he said.
1042 ‘Try tossing a coin,’ said Rincewind.
1046 ‘Go on. Toss a coin.’
1048 ‘Hokay,’ said Hrun. 'If that gives you any pleasure.’ He reached into
1049 his pouch and withdrew a handful of loose change plundered from a
1050 dozen realms. With some care he selected a Zchloty leaden
1051 quarter-iotum and balanced it on a purple thumbnail.
1053 ‘You call,’ he said. ‘Heads or—’ he inspected the obverse with
1054 an air of intense concentration, ‘some sort of a fish with legs.’
1056 ‘When it's in the air,’ said Rincewind. Hrun grinned and flicked his thumb.
1058 The iotum rose, spinning.
1060 ‘Edge,’ said Rincewind, without looking at it.
1062 =head2 v5.17.1 - Rand Miller, "Myst: The Book of Ti'ana"
1064 L<Announced on 2012-06-20 by doy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/06/msg188354.html>
1066 On their return from Ko'ah, Aitrus had shown her the Book, patiently
1067 taking her through page after page, and showing her how such an Age was
1068 "made." She had seen at once the differences between this archaic form
1069 and the ordinary written speech of the D'ni, noting how it was not
1070 merely more elaborate but more specific: a language of precise yet
1071 subtle descriptive power. Yet seeing was one thing, believing another.
1072 Given all the evidence, her rational mind still fought against accepting
1075 =head2 v5.17.0 - Charles Stross, "Singularity Sky"
1077 L<Announced on 2012-05-26 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/05/msg187214.html>
1079 `Welcome, comrades!' Burya opened his arms toward the soldier.
1080 `Yes it is true! With help from our allies of the Festival, the iron
1081 hand of the reactionary junta is about to be overthrown for all time!
1082 The new economy is being born; the marginal cost of production has
1083 been abolished, and from now on, if any item is produced once, it can
1084 be replicated infinitely. From each according to his imagination,
1085 to each according to his needs! Join us or better still, bring your
1086 fellow soldiers and workers to join us!'
1088 There was a sharp bang from the roof of the Corn Exchange, right at the
1089 climax of his impromptu speech; heads turned in alarm. Something had
1090 broken inside the spork factory and a stream of rainbow-hued plastic
1091 implements fountained toward the sky and clattered to the cobblestones
1092 on every side, like a harbinger of the postindustrial society to come.
1093 Workers and peasants alike stared in open-mouthed bewilderment at this
1094 astounding display of productivity, then bent to scrabble in the muck
1095 for the brightly colored sporks of revolution. A volley of shots rang
1096 out and Burya Rubenstein raised his hands, grinning wildly, to accept
1097 the salute of the soldiers from the Skull Hill garrison.
1099 =head2 v5.16.1 - Emerald Rose - Never Split The Party
1101 L<Announced on 2012-08-08 by Ricardo
1102 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00307.html>
1104 Don't you know? You never split the party
1105 Clerics in the back to keep those fighters hale and hearty
1106 The wizard in the middle, where he can shed some light
1107 And you never let that damn thief out of sight…
1109 -- Emerald Rose, Never Split The Party
1111 =head2 v5.16.1 RC1 - Tom Moldvay - Dungeons & Dragons
1113 L<Announced on 2012-08-03 by Ricardo
1114 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-08/msg00157.html>
1116 I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up.
1117 Fifty feed of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes.
1118 Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers.
1119 The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.
1123 I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The
1124 sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow
1125 collection of precious gems. I shouted my battle cry and charged
1127 My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut
1128 inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The
1129 swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other
1130 side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet.
1131 The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the
1132 dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.
1134 -- Tom Moldvay, Foreward to the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook
1136 =head2 v5.16.0 - W.H. Auden - September 1, 1939
1138 L<Announced on 2012-05-20 by Ricardo
1139 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2012-05/msg00728.html>
1141 All I have is a voice
1142 To undo the folded lie,
1143 The romantic lie in the brain
1144 Of the sensual man-in-the-street
1145 And the lie of Authority
1146 Whose buildings grope the sky:
1147 There is no such thing as the State
1148 And no one exists alone;
1149 Hunger allows no choice
1150 To the citizen or the police;
1151 We must love one another or die.
1153 -- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
1155 =head2 v5.15.9 - Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
1157 L<Announced on 2012-03-20 by
1158 Abigail|http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/184824>
1160 How many roads must a man walk down
1161 Before you call him a man?
1162 Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
1163 Before she sleeps in the sand?
1164 Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly
1165 Before they're forever banned?
1166 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1167 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1169 How many years can a mountain exist
1170 Before it's washed to the sea?
1171 Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
1172 Before they're allowed to be free?
1173 Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
1174 Pretending he just doesn't see?
1175 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1176 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1178 How many times must a man look up
1179 Before he can see the sky?
1180 Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
1181 Before he can hear people cry?
1182 Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
1183 That too many people have died?
1184 The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
1185 The answer is blowin' in the wind
1187 -- Bob Dylan, Spring 1962
1189 =head2 v5.15.8 - The KLF - The Manual-How To Have A Number One The Easy Way
1191 L<Announced on 2012-02-20 by Max
1192 Maischein|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/02/msg183919.html>
1194 "Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
1195 Doctor Who, in the Tardis
1196 Doctor Who, hey Doctor Who
1197 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who
1198 Doctor Who, Doc, Doctor Who"
1200 Gibberish of course, but every lad in the country under a certain
1201 age related instinctively to what it was about. The ones slightly
1202 older needed a couple of pints inside them to clear away the mind
1203 debris left by the passing years before it made sense. As for
1204 girls and our chorus, we think they must have seen it as pure crap.
1205 A fact that must have limited to zero our chances of staying at The
1206 Top for more than one week.
1208 Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus
1209 lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single
1210 buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick
1211 into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional
1212 meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As
1213 soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut
1214 single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
1216 "I'm never going to give you up"
1218 =head2 v5.15.7 - Penelope Lively, The Voyage of QV66
1220 L<Announced on 2012-01-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams
1221 |http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/01/msg182230.html>
1223 "Laboratories," announced Henry. "Kindly don't touch anything."
1225 He led us into a long low brick shed. Outside there was a
1226 notice on a piece of board, crudely printed in red paint,
1227 which said GRATE SIENCE DISCOVERYS DONE HERE SSSH! BRING YOUR
1228 OWN BUKKIT NO PINCHING ANYWUN ELSE'S EXPERRYMENTS CANTEEN OPEN
1229 ALL DAY CHIMPS ONLY.
1231 There were a lot of large black monkeys inside, all intently
1232 busy on what they were doing. Some of them were pouring stuff
1233 out of bottles into buckets and carefully stirring the ensuing
1234 mixture; others were at work with glass tubes and jars, blowing
1235 and measuring and mixing; others were crouched over long benches
1236 with tools and heaps of bits and pieces of metal, cutting and
1237 bending and constructing. There was a great deal of noise and
1238 chatter. Every now and then one of them would give a whoop of
1239 excitement and all the others would gather round and jump up and
1240 down cheering and applauding.
1242 "Chimps," said Henry. "They're awfully clever."
1244 =head2 v5.15.6 - Ursula K. Leguin, A Wizard of Earthsea
1246 L<Announced on 2011-12-20 by Dave
1247 Rolsky|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/12/msg180962.html>
1249 Ged had thought that as the prentice of a great mage he would enter at once
1250 into the mystery and mastery of power. He would understand the language of the
1251 beasts and the speech of the leaves of the forest, he thought, and sway the
1252 winds with his word, and learn to change himself into any shape he
1253 wished. Maybe he and his master would run together as stags, or fly to Re Albi
1254 over the mountain on the wings of eagles.
1256 But it was not so at all. They wandered, first down into the Vale and then
1257 gradually south and westward around the mountain, given lodging in little
1258 villages or spending the night out in the wilderness, like poor
1259 journeyman-sorcerers, or tinkers, or beggars. They entered no mysterious
1260 domain. Nothing happened. The mage's oaken staff that Ged had watched at first
1261 with eager dread was nothing but a stout staff to walk with. Three days went
1262 by and four days went by and still Ogion had not spoken a single charm in
1263 Ged's hearing, and had not taught him a single name or rune or spell.
1265 =head2 v5.15.5 - Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman
1267 L<Announced on 2011-11-20 by Steve
1268 Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/11/msg179588.html>
1270 This day - is a day of the greatest solemnity! Spain has a king. He has
1271 been found. I am that king. Only this very day did I learn of it. I
1272 confess, it came to me suddenly in a flash of lightning. I don't understand
1273 how I could have thought and imagined that I was a titular councillor. How
1274 could such a wild notion enter my head? It's a good thing no one thought of
1275 putting me in an insane asylum. Now everything is laid open before me. Now
1276 I see everything as on the palm of my hand. And before, I don't understand,
1277 before everything around me was in some sort of fog. And all this happens, I
1278 think, because people imagine that the human brain is in the head. Not at
1279 all: it is brought by a wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. First
1280 off, I announced to Mavra who I am. When she heard that the king of Spain
1281 was standing before her, she clasped her hands and nearly died of fright.
1282 The stupid woman had never seen a king of Spain before. However, I
1283 endeavoured to calm her down and assured her in gracious words of my
1284 benevolence and that I was not at all angry that she sometimes polished my
1285 boots poorly. They're benighted folk. It's impossible to tell them about
1286 lofty matters. She got frightened because she's convinced that all kings of
1287 Spain are like Philip II. But I explained to her that there was no
1288 resemblance between me and Philip II, and that I didn't have a single
1289 Capuchin . . . I didn't go to the office . . . To hell with it! No friends,
1290 you won't lure me there now; I'm not going to copy your vile papers!
1292 -- Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman,
1293 trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
1295 =head2 v5.15.4 - Steve Jobs
1297 L<Announced on 2011-10-20 by Florian
1298 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/10/msg178412.html>
1300 A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they
1301 don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions
1302 without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of
1303 the human experience, the better design we will have.
1305 =head2 v5.14.3 - William Shakespeare, As You Like It
1307 L<Announced on 2012-10-12 by Dominic Hargreaves|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2012/10/msg194057.html>
1309 The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all
1310 this time there was not any man died in his own person,
1311 videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed
1312 out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he could to die
1313 before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he
1314 would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned
1315 nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good
1316 youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
1317 being taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish
1318 coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' But these
1319 are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have
1320 eaten them, but not for love.
1322 -- As You Like It, William Shakespeare
1324 =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 >>
1326 L<Announced on 2011-09-26 by Florian
1327 Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177618.html>
1330 It's not so much that people don't value the programs after they have them--they
1331 do value them. But they're not the sort of thing that would ever catch on if
1332 they had to overcome the marketing barrier. (I don't yet know if perl will
1333 catch on at all--I'm worried enough about it that I specifically included an
1334 awk-to-perl translator just to help it catch on.) Maybe it's all just an
1335 inferiority complex. Or maybe I don't like to be mercenary.
1337 So I guess I'd say that the reason some software comes free is that the
1338 mechanism for selling it is missing, either from the work environment, or from
1339 the heart of the programmer.
1342 =head2 v5.15.3 - Oscar Wilde, All Art is Quite Useless
1344 L<Announced on 2011-09-20 by Stevan
1345 Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/09/msg177427.html>
1347 All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath
1348 the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol
1349 do so at their peril.
1351 It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
1352 Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the
1353 work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the
1354 artist is in accord with himself.
1356 We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as
1357 he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
1358 thing is that one admires it intensely.
1360 All art is quite useless.
1362 -- Oscar Wilde, From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
1365 =head2 v5.15.2 - Rainer Maria Rilke, The Third Duina Elegy
1367 L<Announced on 2011-08-20 by Ricardo
1368 Signes|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-08/msg00694.html>
1370 True, it is strange to live no more on earth,
1371 no longer follow the folkways scarecely learned;
1372 not to give roses and other especially auspicious
1373 things the significance of a human future;
1374 to be no more what one was in infinitely anxious hands,
1375 and to put aside even one's name, like a broken plaything.
1376 Strange, to wish wishes no longer. Strange, to see
1377 all that was related fluttering so loosely in space.
1378 And being dead is hard, full of catching-up,
1379 so that finally one feels a little eternity.–
1380 But the living all make the mistake of too sharp discrimination.
1381 Often angels (it's said) don't know if they move
1382 among the quick or the dead. The eternal current
1383 hurtles all ages along with it forever
1384 through both realms and drowns their voices in both.
1386 -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino, The First Elegy
1387 trans., C. F. MacIntyre
1389 =head2 v5.15.1 - Greg Egan, "Permutation City"
1391 L<Announced on 2011-07-20 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/msg175014.html>
1393 Carter held out a hand towards the middle of the room. `See that
1394 fountain?' A ten-metre-wide marble wedding cake, topped with a
1395 winged cherub wrestling a serpent, duly appeared. Water cascaded
1396 down from a gushing wound in the cherub's neck. Carter said, `It's
1397 being computed by redundancies in the sketch of the city. I can
1398 extract the results, because I know exactly where to look for them --
1399 but nobody else would have a hope in hell of picking them out.'
1401 Peer walked up to the fountain. Even as he approached, he noticed
1402 that the spray was intangible; when he dipped his hand in the water
1403 around the base he felt nothing, and the motion he made with his
1404 fingers left the foaming surface unchanged. They were spying on
1405 the calculations, not interacting with them; the fountain was a
1408 Carter said, `In your case, of course, nobody will need to know
1409 the results. Except you -- and you'll know them because you'll
1412 =head2 v5.15.0 - Neil Gaiman, "The Graveyard Book"
1414 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173748.html>
1416 If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all
1417 you will have gained.
1419 =head2 v5.12.4 - William Schwenck Gilbert, "Trial By Jury"
1421 L<Announced on 2011-06-20 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173725.html>
1423 You cannot eat breakfast all day,
1424 Nor is it the act of a sinner,
1425 When breakfast is taken away,
1426 To turn his attention to dinner;
1427 And it's not in the range of belief,
1428 To look upon him as a glutton,
1429 Who, when he is tired of beef,
1430 Determines to tackle the mutton.
1431 Ah! But this I am willing to say,
1432 If it will appease her sorrow,
1433 I'll marry this lady today,
1434 And I'll marry the other tomorrow!
1436 =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 >>
1438 L<Announced on 2011-06-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173650.html>
1440 At this point I'm no longer working for a company that makes me sign
1441 my life away, but by now I'm in the habit. Besides, I still harbor
1442 the deep-down suspicion that nobody would pay money for what I write,
1443 since most of it just helps you do something better that you could
1444 already do some other way. How much money would you personally pay
1445 to upgrade from readnews to rn? How much money would you pay for
1446 the patch program? As for warp, it's a mere game. And anything you
1447 can do with perl you can eventually do with an amazing and totally
1448 unreadable conglomeration of awk, sed, sh and C.
1450 =head2 v5.12.4-RC2 - James Russell Lowell, "Eleanor makes macaroons"
1452 L<Announced on 2011-06-15 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173609.html>
1454 Now for sugar, -- nay, our plan
1455 Tolerates no work of man.
1456 Hurry, then, ye golden bees;
1457 Fetch your clearest honey, please,
1458 Garnered on a Yorkshire moor,
1459 While the last larks sing and soar,
1460 From the heather-blossoms sweet
1461 Where sea-breeze and sunshine meet,
1462 And the Augusts mask as Junes, --
1463 Eleanor makes macaroons!
1465 =head2 v5.12.4-RC1 - Ogden Nash, "The Clean Plater"
1467 L<Announced on 2011-06-08 by Leon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/06/msg173352.html>
1469 Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
1470 And terrapin, too, is tasty,
1471 Lobster I freely endorse,
1472 In pate or patty or pasty.
1473 But there's nothing the matter with butter,
1474 And nothing the matter with jam,
1475 And the warmest greetings I utter
1476 To the ham and the yam and the clam.
1479 And I think very fondly of food.
1480 Through I'm broody at times
1481 When bothered by rhymes,
1485 =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 >>
1487 L<Announced on 2011-05-14 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172326.html>
1489 At the start of any project, I'm programming primarily to please
1490 myself. (The two chief virtues in a programmer are laziness and
1491 impatience.) After a while somebody looks over my shoulder and says,
1492 "That's neat. It'd be neater if it did such-and-so." So the thing
1493 gets neater. Pretty soon (a year or two) I have an rn, a warp, a patch,
1494 or a perl. One of these years I'll have a metaconfig.
1496 I then say to myself, "I don't want my life's work to die when this
1497 computer is scrapped, so I should let some other people use this. If I
1498 ask my company to sell this, it'll never see the light of day, and nobody
1499 would pay much for it anyway. If I sell it myself, I'll be in trouble with
1500 my company, to whom I signed my life away when I was hired. If I give it
1501 away, I can pretend it was worthless in the first place, so my company
1502 won't care. In any event, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
1504 So a freely distributable program is born.
1506 =head2 v5.14.0-RC3 - American Airlines Gate Agent, last call
1508 L<Announced on 2011-05-11 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg172282.html>
1510 This is the last call for flight 1697 with service to Chicago and
1511 continuing service to San Francisco. All passengers should already be
1512 aboard. If you aren't aboard at this time, you will be denied boarding
1513 and your bags will be offloaded.
1515 =head2 v5.14.0-RC2 - Greg Grandin, Fordlandia, "the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City"
1517 L<Announced on 2011-05-04 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/05/msg171879.html>
1519 Over the course of nearly two decades, Ford would spend tens of millions
1520 of dollars founding not one but, after the plantation was defastated
1521 by leaf blight, two American towns, complete with central squares,
1522 sidewalks, indoor plumbing, hospitals, manicured lawns, movie theaters,
1523 swimming pools, golf courses, and, of course, Model Ts and As rolling
1524 down their paved streets.
1526 Back in America, newspapers kept up their drumbeat celebration, only
1527 obliquely referencing reports that things were not progressing as the
1528 company had hoped. But there was one note of skepticism. In late 1928,
1529 the Washington Post ran an editorial that read in its entirety: "Ford will
1530 govern a rubber plantation in Brazil larger than North Carolina. This is
1531 the first time he has applied quantity production methods to trouble"
1533 =head2 v5.14.0-RC1 - Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"
1535 L<Announced on 2011-04-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/04/msg171253.html>
1537 But then Australia is such a difficult country to keep track of. On
1538 my first visit, some years ago, I passed the time on the long flight
1539 reading a history of Australian politics in the twentieth century,
1540 wherein I encountered the startling fact that in 1967 the prime minister,
1541 Harold Holt, was strolling along a beach in Victoria when he plunged into
1542 the surf and vanished. No trace of the poor man was ever seen again.
1543 This seemed doubly astounding to me—first that Australia could
1544 just I<lose> a prime minister (I mean, come on) and second that news of
1545 this had never reached me.
1547 =head2 v5.13.11 - Walt Whitman, L<Leaves of Grass|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
1549 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2011-03/msg00560.html>
1551 When the full-grown poet came,
1552 Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with all its
1553 shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine;
1554 But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and unreconciled,
1555 Nay he is mine alone;
1556 --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two, and took each
1558 And to-day and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly
1560 Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
1561 And wholly and joyously blends them.
1563 =head2 v5.13.10 - Egill Skalla-Grímsson, L<Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar|http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Egils_saga_Skalla-Gr%C3%ADmssonar>
1565 L<Announced on 2011-02-20 by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/02/msg169340.html>
1567 Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
1568 nema ráða vel kunni.
1569 Þat verðr mörgum manni,
1570 es of myrkvan staf villisk.
1572 tíu launstafi ristna.
1573 Þat hefr lauka lindi
1574 langs ofrtrega fengit.
1576 =head2 v5.13.9 - John F Kennedy, L<Inaugural Address January 20, 1961|http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address>
1578 L<Announced on 2011-01-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168335.html>
1580 In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
1581 granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I
1582 do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe
1583 that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other
1584 generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this
1585 endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from
1586 that fire can truly light the world.
1588 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
1589 ask what you can do for your country.
1591 My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you,
1592 but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
1594 Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
1595 ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
1596 we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history
1597 the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
1598 asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's
1599 work must truly be our own.
1601 =head2 v5.13.8 - Roger Williams, L<"The Fifth Gift"|http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/19/21304/8493>
1603 L<Announced on 2010-12-19 by Zefram|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/12/msg167271.html>
1605 The aliens called the box a "matter generator," but we'd be more inclined
1606 to call it a matter duplicator. By connecting switches and potentiometers
1607 between the copper posts it was possible to make the box mark off two
1608 cubic rectangular areas of volume. Make a certain contact, and these
1609 areas would be isolated within perfectly reflective fields. They could
1610 be expanded or contracted by altering resistances between other posts.
1611 As I worked out the user interface I built a little control panel for
1612 the device. It was actually a clever way for the aliens to do things;
1613 instead of trying to build controls we could use, they built us an
1614 interface we could attach to controls that made sense to us. It could
1617 Once you had made the contact that established the shielded volumes,
1618 if you made another certain contact the contents of the first volume
1619 were copied to the second. The machine copied metal, plastic, steel,
1620 and diamond with equal ease. Copies of copies of copies of copies were
1621 indistinguishable from the originals at any magnification, even using
1622 techniques like X-ray crystallography.
1624 =head2 v5.13.7 - Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 'The Matrix'
1626 L<Announced on 2010-11-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/11/msg166162.html>
1628 [Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]
1632 [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
1634 Trinity: What did you just say?
1635 Neo: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
1636 Trinity: What did you see?
1637 Cypher: What happened?
1638 Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just
1640 Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?
1641 Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.
1642 Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!
1644 Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when
1645 they change something.
1647 =head2 v5.13.6 - Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Shore"
1649 L<Announced on 2010-10-20 by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/10/msg165183.html>
1651 The boy called Crow softly rests a hand on my shoulder, and with that
1654 "From now on -- no matter what -- you've got to be the world's toughest
1655 fifteen-year-old. That's the only way you're going to survive. And in order
1656 to do that, you've got to figure out what it means to be tough. You following
1659 I keep my eyes closed and don't reply. I just want to sink off into sleep
1660 like this, his hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
1662 "You're going to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old," Crow whispers
1663 as I try to fall asleep. Like he was carving the words in a deep blue tattoo
1666 (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
1668 =head2 v5.13.5 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "The Room in the Dragon Volant"
1670 L<Announced on 2010-09-19 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg164238.html>
1672 Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of
1673 air, long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and
1674 the damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle
1675 faintly lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot
1676 of which I could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to
1677 the stone floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind,
1678 deep sunk in the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key
1679 fitted this. The lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the
1680 stair, and applied both hands; it turned with difficulty, and as it
1681 revolved, uttered a shriek that alarmed me for my secret.
1683 For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took
1684 courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out
1685 the candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a
1686 jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness,
1687 were it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and
1688 there, a glimmer of moonshine.
1690 Softly, lest any one should have opened his window at the sound of the
1691 rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open
1692 grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the
1693 park, uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have
1696 =head2 v5.13.4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1698 L<Announced on 2010-08-20 by Florian Ragwitz|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163150.html>
1700 `How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' thought Alice;
1701 `I might as well be at school at once.' However, she got up, and began to repeat
1702 it, but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what
1703 she was saying, and the words came very queer indeed:--
1705 "'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
1706 "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
1707 As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
1708 Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.'
1711 `That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the Gryphon.
1713 `Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; `but it sounds uncommon
1716 Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if
1717 anything would ever happen in a natural way again.
1719 `I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle.
1721 `She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. `Go on with the next verse.'
1723 `But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. `How could he turn them out
1724 with his nose, you know?'
1726 `It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully puzzled by
1727 the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.
1729 =head2 v5.13.3 - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"
1731 L<Announced on 2010-07-20 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/07/msg162230.html>
1733 Look at Crowley, doing 110 mph on the M40 heading towards
1734 Oxfordshire. Even the most resolutely casual observer would
1735 notice a number of strange things about him. The clenched teeth,
1736 for example, or the dull red glow coming from behind his
1737 sunglasses. And the car. The car was a definite hint.
1739 Crowley had started the journey in his Bentley, and he was
1740 dammned if he wasn't going to finish it in the Bentley as well.
1741 Not that even the kind of car buff who owns his own pair of
1742 motoring goggles would have been able to tell it was a vintage
1743 Bentley. Not any more. They wouldn't have been able to tell
1744 that it was a Bentley. They would only offer fifty-fifty that it
1745 had ever even been a car.
1747 There was no paint left on it, for a start. It might still have
1748 been black, where it wasn't a rusty, smudged reddish-brown, but
1749 this was a dull charcoal black. It traveled in its own ball of
1750 flame, like a space capsule making a particularly difficult
1753 There was a thin skin of crusted, melted rubber left around the
1754 metal wheel rims, but seeing that the wheel rims were still
1755 somhow riding an inch above the road surface this didn't seem to
1756 make an awful lot of difference to the suspension.
1758 It should have fallen apart miles back.
1760 =head2 v5.13.2 - Iain M Banks, "Use of Weapons"
1762 L<Announced on 2010-06-22 by Matt S Trout|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/06/msg161112.html>
1764 We deal in the moral equivalent of black holes, where the normal laws -
1765 the rules of right and wrong that people imagine apply everywhere else
1766 in the universe - break down; beyond those metaphysical event-horizons,
1767 there exist ... special circumstances.
1769 =head2 v5.13.1 - Miguel de Unamuno, "The Sepulchre of Don Quixote"
1771 L<Announced on 2010-05-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160275.html>
1773 And if anyone shall come to you and say that he knows how to construct
1774 bridges and that perhaps a time will come when you will wish to avail
1775 yourself of his science in order to cross over a river, out with him! Out
1776 with the engineer! Rivers will be crossed by wading or swimming them, even
1777 if half the crusaders drown themselves. Let the engineer go off and build
1778 bridges somewhere else, where they are badly wanted. For those who go in
1779 quest of the sepulchre, faith is bridge enough.
1781 =head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
1783 L<Announced on 2010-04-20 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg159275.html>
1785 The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
1786 involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
1787 when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
1788 streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the
1789 road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot
1790 seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of
1791 smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench!
1793 "Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old
1794 volcano were once more to set to work."
1796 =head2 v5.12.3 - Howard W. Campbell, Jr., "Reflections on Not Participating in Current Events"
1798 L<Announced on 2011-01-21 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/01/msg168368.html>
1800 I saw a huge steam roller,
1801 It blotted out the sun.
1802 The people all lay down, lay down;
1803 They did not try to run.
1804 My love and I, we looked amazed
1805 Upon the gory mystery.
1806 'Lie down, lie down!' the people cried.
1807 'The great machine is history!'
1808 My love and I, we ran away,
1809 The engine did not find us.
1810 We ran up to a mountain top,
1811 Left history far behind us.
1812 Perhaps we should have stayed and died,
1813 But somehow we don't think so.
1814 We went to see where history'd been,
1815 And my, the dead did stink so.
1817 =head2 v5.12.2 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
1819 L<Announced on 2010-09-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/09/msg163852.html>
1821 CPUs. Cayce Pollard Units. That's what Damien calls the clothing
1822 she wears. CPUs are either black, white, or gray, and ideally
1823 seem to have come into this world without human intervention.
1825 What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect
1826 of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion. This
1827 has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and
1828 will wear. She is, literally, allergic to fashion. She can
1829 only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general
1830 lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000. She's a
1831 design-free zone, a one-woman school of and whose very austerity
1832 periodically threatens to spawn its own cult.
1834 =head2 v5.12.2-RC1 - William Gibson, "Pattern Recognition"
1836 L<Announced on 2010-08-31 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/08/msg163670.html>
1838 The front page opens, familiar as a friend's living room. A frame-grab
1839 from #48 serves as backdrop, dim and almost monochrome, no characters in
1840 view. This is one of the sequences that generate comparisons with
1841 Tarkovsky. She only knows Tarkovsky from stills, really, though she did
1842 once fall asleep during a screening of The Stalker, going under on an
1843 endless pan, the camera aimed straight down, in close-up, at a puddle on
1844 a ruined mosaic floor. But she is not one of those who think that much
1845 will be gained by analysis of the maker's imagined influences. The cult
1846 of the footage is rife with subcults, claiming every possible influence.
1847 Truffaut, Peckinpah -- The Peckinpah people, among the least likely, are
1848 still waiting for the guns to be drawn.
1850 =head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1852 L<Announced on 2010-05-16 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160109.html>
1854 "Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were
1855 many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze.
1856 Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs --
1857 what we might call ice-one -- is only one of several types of ice.
1858 Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never
1859 had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four
1860 ...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again,
1861 "that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine -- a crystal as
1862 hard as this desk -- with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred
1863 degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred-
1864 and-thirty degrees."
1866 =head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1868 L<Announced on 2010-05-13 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg160066.html>
1870 San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from
1871 the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four
1872 hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals
1875 Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea
1876 level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a
1877 harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal
1878 exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties.
1880 =head2 v5.12.1-RC1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
1882 L<Announced on 2010-05-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/05/msg159971.html>
1884 Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is
1885 the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us,
1886 just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree,
1887 a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever
1888 it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos
1889 of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their
1890 common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not
1891 bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing:
1893 Around and around and around we spin,
1894 With feet of lead and wings of tin . . .
1896 =head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1898 L<Announced on 2010-04-12 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158820.html>
1900 'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was
1901 not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why
1902 your cat grins like that?'
1904 'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!'
1906 She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite
1907 jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby,
1908 and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:--
1910 'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know
1911 that cats COULD grin.'
1913 'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.'
1915 =head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1917 L<Announced on 2010-04-09 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158720.html>
1919 'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words
1922 'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
1923 there was silence for some minutes.
1925 =head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1927 L<Announced on 2010-04-06 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158567.html>
1929 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't
1930 always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
1931 rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and
1932 yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
1933 can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
1934 kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!
1936 =head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1938 L<Announced on 2010-04-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/04/msg158346.html>
1940 At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
1941 called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
1942 dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
1943 in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
1944 sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1946 'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This
1947 is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William
1948 the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
1949 to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
1950 accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
1951 Mercia and Northumbria --"'
1953 =head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no announcement
1955 Available on CPAN since 2010-04-01.
1957 =head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1959 L<Announced on 2010-03-29 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg158060.html>
1961 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the
1962 hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of
1963 making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and
1964 picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
1967 There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
1968 VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh
1969 dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it
1970 occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time
1971 it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH
1972 OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,
1973 Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
1974 never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1975 take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
1976 after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
1977 rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1979 In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how
1980 in the world she was to get out again.
1982 =head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigraph
1984 L<Announced on 2020-03-21 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/03/msg157761.html>
1986 =head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"
1988 L<Announced on 2010-02-21 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/02/msg156957.html>
1990 A little child, a limber elf,
1991 Singing, dancing to itself,
1992 A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
1993 That always finds, and never seeks,
1994 Makes such a vision to the sight
1995 As fills a father's eyes with light;
1996 And pleasures flow in so thick and fast
1997 Upon his heart, that he at last
1998 Must needs express his love's excess
1999 With words of unmeant bitterness.
2000 Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together
2001 Thoughts so all unlike each other;
2002 To mutter and mock a broken charm,
2003 To dally with wrong that does no harm.
2004 Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty
2005 At each wild word to feel within
2006 A sweet recoil of love and pity.
2007 And what, if in a world of sin
2008 (O sorrow and shame should this be true!)
2009 Such giddiness of heart and brain
2010 Comes seldom save from rage and pain,
2011 So talks as it's most used to do.
2013 =head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"
2015 L<Announced on 2010-01-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2010/01/msg155848.html>
2017 And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went
2018 into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you
2019 mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to
2020 question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly
2021 hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a
2022 louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man
2023 who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I
2024 worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have
2025 done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon.
2027 =head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
2029 L<Announced on 2009-12-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/12/msg154838.html>
2031 "Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
2032 course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"
2034 Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?"
2036 "Why ain't that work?"
2038 Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it
2039 is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
2041 "Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
2043 The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't
2044 to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
2046 That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
2047 swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect
2048 -- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben
2049 watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
2050 absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
2052 =head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward"
2054 L<Announced on 2009-11-20 by Léon Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/11/msg153646.html>
2056 The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here
2057 at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the
2058 streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in
2059 the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently
2060 live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into
2061 colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch:
2062 as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're
2063 wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone
2064 prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood,
2065 however much they're into colour.
2067 =head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
2069 L<Announced on 2009-10-20 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg152360.html>
2071 Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen,
2072 and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his
2073 word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious
2074 disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying
2075 everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share"
2076 on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain
2077 that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His
2078 glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his
2079 war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Milo
2080 presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal
2081 for more hazardous assignment.
2083 =head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
2085 L<Announced on 2009-10-02 by Jesse Vincent|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/10/msg151376.html>
2087 Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in
2088 streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance
2089 trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless
2090 to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories
2091 about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun
2092 of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless,
2093 facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without
2094 explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of
2095 Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured
2096 people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the
2097 work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in
2100 =head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2102 L<Announced on 2009-09-23 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150172.html>
2104 'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as
2105 the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private
2106 Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the
2107 Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly
2108 responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under
2109 Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries.
2110 Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain
2111 Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two
2112 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own
2113 Parliamentary Private Secretary.'
2115 'Can they all type?' I joked.
2117 'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs
2118 McKay types - she is your Secretary.'
2120 I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said.
2121 'We could have opened an agency.'
2123 Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir
2124 Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely
2125 amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they
2126 all say that, do they?' I ventured.
2128 Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he
2129 replied. 'Not quite all.'
2131 =head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigraph
2133 L<Announced on 2009-08-18 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg150015.html>
2135 =head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigraph
2137 L<Announced on 2009-08-06 by Dave Mitchell|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/08/msg149498.html>
2139 =head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2141 L<Announced on 2007-12-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/12/msg131636.html>
2143 He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that
2144 he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it
2145 out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short
2146 noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it
2147 must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same
2148 number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line,
2149 did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.
2151 =head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigraph
2153 L<Announced on 2007-11-25 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130978.html>
2155 =head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigraph
2157 L<Announced on 2007-11-17 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/11/msg130653.html>
2159 =head2 v5.9.5 - no announcement
2161 L<Pre-announced on 2007-07-07 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2007/07/msg126358.html>,
2162 available on CPAN with same date, but never actually announced.
2164 =head2 v5.9.4 - no epigraph
2166 L<Announced on 2006-08-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/08/msg115782.html>
2168 =head2 v5.9.3 - no epigraph
2170 L<Announced on 2006-01-28 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2006/01/msg109086.html>
2172 =head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V"
2174 L<Announced on 2005-04-01 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20050401150702.2b4a70d5@grubert.mandrakesoft.com>
2176 This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd
2177 gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and
2178 technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less
2179 about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a
2180 bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all
2181 paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic
2182 in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to
2183 electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd
2184 picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around
2185 to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one
2186 technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was
2187 getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this
2188 sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when
2189 it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was
2190 conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop.
2192 "And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And
2193 that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized
2194 `cells' in a big `electronic brain.' "
2196 "Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But
2197 one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go
2198 flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop,
2199 everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to
2202 =head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia"
2204 L<Announced on 2004-03-16 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/8587d77c565f2d43>
2206 Aren't you supposed to have a pony?
2208 =head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest"
2210 L<Announced on 2003-10-27 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/63a8c34385de82a1>
2212 What of October, that ambiguous month
2214 =head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2216 L<Announced on 2008-12-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/12/msg142571.html>
2218 Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a
2219 proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by
2220 the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the
2221 anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise
2222 how damaging this would be to the European ideal?
2224 'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.'
2226 This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression
2227 that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey.
2229 'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the
2230 expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really
2231 anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make
2232 sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.'
2234 This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And
2235 basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign
2236 policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a
2237 disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against
2238 the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and
2239 Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians
2240 and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the
2241 Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.]
2243 In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no
2244 reason to change when it has worked so well until now.
2246 I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history.
2247 Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary
2248 for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We
2249 had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't
2250 work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA,
2251 the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK
2252 left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete
2253 pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French,
2254 the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and
2255 the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time.
2257 I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are
2258 publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir
2259 Humphrey, and he simply chuckled.
2261 So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we
2262 pushing to increase the membership?
2264 'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The
2265 more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more
2266 futile and impotent it becomes.'
2268 This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so.
2270 Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it
2271 diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.'
2273 =head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2275 L<Announced on 2008-12-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg142422.html>
2277 There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do
2278 about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the
2279 four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or
2280 anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop
2281 thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon.
2283 Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive
2284 and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate
2285 press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had
2286 obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he
2287 produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve
2290 I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight
2291 hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out
2292 incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.'
2294 'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred
2295 redundancy payments as well.'
2297 'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest,
2298 it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.'
2300 'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey.
2302 =head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister"
2304 L<Announced on 2008-11-10 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2008/11/msg141515.html>
2306 A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I
2307 was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes,
2308 and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo
2311 I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said.
2313 I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to
2314 Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it
2315 specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at
2316 the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are
2317 jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly
2318 grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines
2319 in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.'
2321 While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo
2322 taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave
2323 me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night
2324 sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a
2325 three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last
2326 plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any
2327 occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we
2328 were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim.
2330 And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We
2331 were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie.
2333 Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a
2334 name like Charlie Umtali?
2336 I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now
2337 know something about our official visitor.
2339 Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO
2340 has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the
2341 car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted
2342 to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore
2343 knew little of his background.
2345 I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background.
2346 Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top
2347 first. Wiped the floor with everyone.
2349 Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.'
2353 'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how
2354 to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I
2355 never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally.
2357 Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said
2358 that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?'
2360 In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know
2361 where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a
2362 revolving door and comes out in front.'
2364 'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey.
2366 'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.'
2368 'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.'
2370 =head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green"
2372 L<Announced on 2006-02-01 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/28caf52e41ebe723>
2374 It's not that easy bein' green
2375 Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
2376 When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
2377 Or something much more colorful like that
2379 It's not easy bein' green
2380 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
2381 And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
2382 Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
2385 But green's the color of Spring
2386 And green can be cool and friendly-like
2387 And green can be big like an ocean
2388 Or important like a mountain
2391 When green is all there is to be
2392 It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
2393 Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
2394 And I think it's what I want to be
2396 =head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse"
2398 L<Announced on 2006-01-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/d231fc554af8cc51>
2400 Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it!
2402 Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone.
2404 =head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2406 L<Announced on 2005-05-31 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9a545704a0062f16>
2408 And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the
2409 hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the
2412 Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught
2413 the wolf? What then?"
2415 =head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf"
2417 L<Announced on 2005-05-20 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2005/05/msg100711.html>
2419 And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The
2420 bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and
2421 round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes.
2423 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the
2424 gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and
2425 climbed up the high stone wall.
2427 One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking,
2428 stretched out over the wall.
2430 Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree.
2431 Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only
2432 take care that he doesn't catch you!".
2434 The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf
2435 snapped angrily at him from this side and that.
2437 How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But
2438 the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.
2440 =head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"
2442 L<Announced on 2004-11-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20041128000836.GA304@Bagpuss.unfortu.net>
2444 "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was
2447 "So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?"
2449 "I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree,
2450 and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having
2451 to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?"
2453 "Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh.
2455 "It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm
2458 "Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will
2459 grow up into a beehive."
2461 Piglet wasn't quite sure about this.
2463 "Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much.
2464 Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the
2465 wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother"
2467 Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
2469 "Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know
2470 how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made,
2471 and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
2473 =head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
2475 L<Announced on 2004-11-11 by Nicholas Clark|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2004/11/msg95786.html>
2477 "Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?"
2479 "Hunting," said Pooh.
2483 "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
2485 "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer.
2487 "That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?"
2489 "What do you think you'll answer?"
2491 "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
2492 "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do
2495 "Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
2496 excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
2498 =head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew"
2500 L<Announced on 2004-07-19 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/68340e2e4c39222c>
2502 Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and
2503 ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish
2504 bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes,
2505 waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their
2506 droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very
2507 hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English
2510 In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is
2511 often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are
2512 placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are
2513 likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees
2514 may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the
2515 Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites.
2516 Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage
2517 farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial
2518 grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of
2519 T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.
2521 =head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech"
2523 L<Announced on 2004-07-09 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/f92175725af7a5ad>
2525 Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about
2526 ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or
2527 sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in
2528 pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or
2529 shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica).
2531 The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus,
2532 Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New
2533 Caledonia and South America.
2535 =head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged)
2537 L<Announced on 2004-07-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/ca6ce4a7ed9f219c?pli=1>
2539 The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also
2540 often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a
2541 large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed
2542 and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid
2543 spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same
2544 year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and
2545 may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk.
2547 It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged
2548 branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many
2549 of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques
2550 that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health.
2552 Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and
2553 other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the
2554 acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small
2555 mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius.
2557 It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable
2558 heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work.
2560 =head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat"
2562 L<Announced on 2004-04-22 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/c7333acf03ef4015>
2564 I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
2565 The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
2566 She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
2567 She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!
2569 But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
2570 Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
2571 She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment
2572 To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
2573 So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts,
2574 A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
2575 With a purpose in life and a good deed to do--
2576 And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.
2578 So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers --
2579 On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.
2582 =head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"
2584 L<Announced on 2004-04-16 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/84f6fdd73cc56a1b>
2586 Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw --
2587 For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
2588 He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
2589 For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
2591 Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
2592 He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
2593 His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
2594 And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/!
2595 You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air --
2596 But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/!
2598 =head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat"
2600 L<Announced on 2004-04-05 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e500353440769ebf>
2602 There's a whisper down the line at 11.39
2603 When the Night Mail's ready to depart,
2604 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
2605 We must find him of the train can't start.'
2606 All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters
2607 They are searching high and low,
2608 Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble
2609 Then the Night Mail just can't go'
2610 At 11.42 then the signal's overdue
2611 And the passengers are frantic to a man--
2612 Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:
2613 He's been busy in the luggage van!
2614 He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
2615 And the signal goes 'All Clear!'
2616 And we're off at last of the northern part
2617 Of the Northern Hemisphere!
2619 =head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode"
2621 L<Announced on 2004-01-14 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/968fb8d71e23af69>
2623 We are the music makers,
2624 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
2625 Wandering by lonely sea-breakers,
2626 And sitting by desolate streams; --
2627 World-losers and world-forsakers,
2628 On whom the pale moon gleams:
2629 Yet we are the movers and shakers
2630 Of the world for ever, it seems.
2632 =head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance"
2634 L<Announced on 2004-01-07 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/5ced50bebcd11c96>
2636 There may be trouble ahead,
2637 But while there's music and moonlight,
2638 And love and romance,
2639 Let's face the music and dance.
2641 Before the fiddlers have fled,
2642 Before they ask us to pay the bill,
2643 And while we still have that chance,
2644 Let's face the music and dance.
2646 Soon, we'll be without the moon,
2647 Humming a different tune, and then,
2649 There may be teardrops to shed,
2650 So while there's music and moonlight,
2651 And love and romance,
2652 Let's face the music and dance.
2654 =head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"
2656 L<Announced on 2003-11-06 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/4714574f93967673>
2658 Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
2659 Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
2660 Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail!
2661 Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
2662 Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
2663 Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
2665 Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
2666 Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me,
2667 For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
2668 And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
2671 O farther farther sail!
2672 O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
2673 O farther, farther, farther sail!
2675 =head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty"
2677 L<Announced on 2003-11-03 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/7669de5804b792f6>
2679 It's fun to charter an accountant
2680 And sail the wide accountan-cy,
2681 To find, explore the funds offshore
2682 And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy.
2684 =head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies"
2686 L<Announced on 2003-10-28 by Nicholas Clark|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83680ef3bbf7378d>
2688 They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
2689 In a Sieve they went to sea:
2690 In spite of all their friends could say,
2691 On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
2692 In a Sieve they went to sea!
2693 And when the Sieve turned round and round,
2694 And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
2695 They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
2696 But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig!
2697 In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
2699 Far and few, far and few,
2700 Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
2701 Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
2702 And they went to sea in a Sieve.
2704 =head2 v5.8.1 - epigraph same as v5.7.1
2706 L<Announced on 2003-09-25 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82678.html>
2708 =head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies"
2710 L<Announced on 2003-09-22 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/09/msg82476.html>
2712 No matter what she did with her hair it took about
2713 three minutes for it to tangle itself up again,
2714 like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which,
2715 no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil
2716 overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles].
2718 =head2 v5.8.1-RC4 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2720 L<Announced on 2003-08-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/08/msg79184.html>
2722 Grand Viziers were /always/ scheming megalomaniacs.
2723 It was probably in the job description: "Are you a
2724 devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good,
2725 then you can be my most trusted minister."
2727 =head2 v5.8.1-RC3 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2729 L<Announced on 2003-07-30 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg79048.html>
2731 Lord Hong had a mind like a knife, although possibly
2732 a knife with a curved blade.
2734 =head2 v5.8.1-RC2 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2736 L<Announced on 2003-07-11 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78102.html>
2738 Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill
2739 me because I've got magic aaargh."
2741 =head2 v5.8.1-RC1 - Terry Pratchett, "Interesting Times"
2743 L<Announced on 2003-07-10 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2003/07/msg78009.html>
2745 Cohen was familiar with city gates. He'd broken down a number
2746 in his time, by battering ram, siege gun, and on one occasion
2749 But the gates of Hunghung were pretty damn good gates. They
2750 weren't like the gates of Ankh-Morpork, which were usually wide
2751 open to attract the spending customer and whose concession to
2752 defense was the sign "Thank You For Not Attacking Our City.
2753 Bonum Diem." These things were big and made of metal and there
2754 was a guardhouse and a squad of unhelpful men in black armor.
2756 =head2 v5.8.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
2758 L<Announced on 2002-07-18 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63720.html>
2760 There was the faint sound of footsteps.
2761 "Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week,"
2762 said the low priest.
2763 There was a sound like the flushing of a very old dry lavatory.
2764 The footsteps stopped. The High Priest smiled to himself.
2765 "Right," he said. "See your two pebbles and raise you two pebbles."
2766 The low priest threw down his cards. "Double Onion," he said.
2767 The High Priest looked down suspiciously.
2768 The low priest consulted a scrap of paper. "That's three hundred
2769 thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four pebbles you owe me," he said.
2770 There was the sound of footsteps. The priests exchanged glances.
2771 "Haven't had one for poisoned-dart alley for quite some time,"
2772 said the High Priest.
2773 "Five says he makes it", said the low priest. "You're on."
2774 There was a faint clatter of metal points on stone.
2775 "It's a shame to take your pebbles."
2776 There were footsteps again.
2778 =head2 v5.8.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2780 L<Announced on 2002-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/07/msg63234.html>
2782 =head2 v5.8.0-RC2 - no epigraph
2784 L<Announced on 2002-06-21 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg62013.html>
2786 =head2 v5.8.0-RC1 - no epigraph
2788 L<Announced on 2002-06-01 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/06/msg60317.html>
2790 =head2 v5.7.3 - Terry Pratchett, "Reaper Man"
2792 L<Announced on 2002-03-04 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/03/msg53652.html>
2794 Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.
2795 No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always
2796 got there first, and is waiting for it.
2798 =head2 v5.7.2 - Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
2800 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/07/msg40370.html>
2802 His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools --
2803 the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up
2804 all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any
2805 bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing
2806 you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
2808 =head2 v5.7.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Colour of Magic"
2810 L<Announced on 2001-07-13 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33851.html>
2812 "What happens next?" asked Twoflower.
2814 Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently.
2816 "Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be
2817 flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple
2818 arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders
2819 and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then
2820 I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then
2821 I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl
2822 will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll
2823 liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure."
2824 Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the
2825 ceiling, whistling tunelessly.
2827 "All that?" said Twoflower.
2831 =head2 v5.7.0 - Terry Pratchett, "Moving Pictures"
2833 L<Announced on 2000-09-02 by Jarkko Hietaniemi|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/09/msg17730.html>
2835 The Librarian had seen many weird things in his time,
2836 but that had to be the 57th strangest.
2837 [footnote: he had a tidy mind]
2839 =head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2841 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/deb8cb9ad918716f>
2843 When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this
2844 sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of
2845 a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see
2846 what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not
2847 long in this instance.
2849 =head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy"
2851 L<Announced on 2003-11-15 by Rafael Garcia-Suarez|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/e3d4acc7a8dd3ce5>
2853 "Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?"
2855 =head2 v5.6.1 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", Riddles in the Dark
2857 L<Announced on 2001-04-08 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33823.html>
2859 `What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to
2860 himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully
2863 `Not fair! not fair!' he hissed. `It isn't fair, my precious, is it,
2864 to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?'
2866 Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask
2867 stuck to his question, `What have I got in my pocket?' he said
2870 `S-s-s-s-s,' hissed Gollum. `It must give us three guesseses,
2871 my precious, three guesseses.'
2873 =head2 v5.6.1-foolish - no epigraph
2875 L<Announced on 2001-08-04 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33421.html>
2877 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL3 - I can't find the announcement
2879 No announcement available.
2881 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL2 - no epigraph
2883 L<Announced on 2001-01-31 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/01/msg29934.html>
2885 =head2 v5.6.1-TRIAL1 - no epigraph
2887 L<Announced on 2000-12-18 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/12/msg27738.html>
2889 =head2 v5.6.0 - J R R Tolkien, "The Hobbit", The Last Stage
2891 L<Announced on 2000-03-23 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10341.html>
2893 The dragon is withered,
2894 His bones are now crumbled;
2895 His armour is shivered,
2896 His splendour is humbled!
2897 Though sword shall be rusted,
2898 And throne and crown perish
2899 With strength that men trusted
2900 And wealth that they cherish,
2901 Here grass is still growing,
2902 And leaves are a yet swinging,
2903 The white water flowing,
2904 And elves are yet singing
2905 Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
2906 Come back to the valley.
2908 =head2 v5.6.0-RC3 - no epigraph
2910 L<Announced on 2000-03-22 by Gurusamy Sarathy|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2000/03/msg10140.html>
2912 =head2 v5.005_05-RC1 - no epigraph
2914 L<Announced on 2009-02-16 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2009/02/msg144227.html>
2916 =head2 v5.005_04 - no epigraph
2918 L<Announced on 2004-03-01 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6c240ad0b189cb47>
2920 =head2 v5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"
2922 L<Announced on 2004-02-19 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/83e5421124a7b49d>
2924 The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise
2925 the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they
2926 never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use
2927 them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council
2928 chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would
2929 run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster
2930 and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them,
2931 and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up
2932 and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake
2933 the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers
2936 =head2 v5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
2938 L<Announced on 2004-02-05 by LE<0xe9>on Brocard|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/6aaeb6ec699bd116>
2940 Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had
2941 plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was
2942 going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what
2943 she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked
2944 at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with
2945 cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures
2946 hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
2947 passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great
2948 disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear
2949 of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
2952 =head2 v1.0_16 - Johan Vromans, extemporarily
2954 L<Announced on 2003-12-18 by Richard Clamp|http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl5.porters/msg/9281dc6194d15940>
2956 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2958 This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigraphs
2959 on L<Perl Monks|http://perlmonks.org> titled
2960 L<Recent Perl Release Announcement|http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=372406>