=head1 EPIGRAPHS
+=head2 v5.26.0-RC2 - Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate
+
+ Amateur psychiatric prognosis can be fascinating when there is
+ absolutely nothing else to do.
+
+=head2 v5.26.0-RC1 - Thomas Paine, Common Sense
+
+L<Announced on 2017-05-11 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/05/msg244337.html>
+
+ A long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial
+ appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in
+ defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more
+ converts than reason.
+
+=head2 v5.25.12 - Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
+
+L<Announced on 2017-04-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/04/msg244146.html>
+
+ I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take
+ part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not
+ to fill them with satisfaction or glee.
+
+ I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre
+ machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need
+ machinery like that.
+
+=head2 v5.25.11 - Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
+
+L<Announced on 2017-03-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/03/msg243624.html>
+
+ Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of
+ the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a
+ feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the
+ cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of
+ uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly
+ tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his
+ mind, not necessarily that the story is true.
+
+=head2 v5.25.10 - Erich Fried, 1968
+
+L<Announced on 2017-02-20 by Renee Bäcker|https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/02/msg243173.html>
+
+ He who wants the world to remain as it is
+ doesn't want it to remain.
+
+=head2 v5.25.9 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie-the-Pooh", 1926
+
+L<Announced on 2017-01-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/01/msg242405.html>
+
+ Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o'clock in the
+ morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates
+ and mugs; and when Rabbit said, "Honey or condensed milk with
+ your bread?" he was so excited that he said, "Both," and then,
+ so as not to seem greedy, he added, "But don't bother about the
+ bread, please."
+
+=head2 v5.25.8 - Langston Hughes, So long
+
+L<Announced on 2016-12-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/12/msg241739.html>
+
+ So long
+ is in the song
+ and it's in the way you're gone
+ but it's like a foreign language
+ in my mind
+ and maybe was I blind
+ I could not see
+ and would not know
+ you're gone so long
+ so long.
+
+=head2 v5.25.7 - J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Silmarillion"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-11-20 by Chad 'Exodist' Granum|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/11/msg241120.html>
+
+ Of Beren and Lúthien
+
+ Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of
+ those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the
+ shadow of death light that endures. And of these histories most fair still in
+ the ears of the Elves is the tale of Beren and Lúthien. Of their lives was made
+ the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bondage, which is the longest save one of the
+ songs concerning the world of old; but here is told in fewer words and without
+ song.
+
+=head2 v5.25.6 - Alan Warner, "The Sopranos"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-10-10 by Aaron Crane|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/10/msg240406.html>
+
+ I'm up on all the pop trivia, says the guy with the stud in his tongue.
+ Are you?
+ Yes. Do you know who he lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen is?
+ Let me guess, is he called Echo?
+ Good guess but no, anyway when they played Glastonbury it was so
+ muddy he had two roadies to hold up a binliner on each of his legs so
+ they wouldn't get covered in mud.
+ That's what being rich and famous is all about, having someone
+ else hold up your binliners on each leg when you're wandering across
+ a sea of shite.
+ Do you know what Sammy Davis Junior said being black and famous in
+ America meant?
+ No.
+ He said being black and famous in America meant he could be
+ refused entry to exclusive clubs and restaurants that other people
+ could only ever dream of going to. Do you know Michael Stipe likes to
+ send his remote control toy cars onto stage while his support band are
+ playing to freak them out?
+ Who's Michael Stipe?
+ You're not really a pop trivia person, are you, Kylah?
+ No, I'm not, Stephen.
+
+=head2 v5.25.5 - Philip K. Dick, VALIS
+
+L<Announced on 2016-09-20 by Stevan Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/09/msg239887.html>
+
+ We hypostatize information into objects. Rearrangement of objects is
+ change in the content of the information; the message has changed.
+ This is a language which we have lost the ability to read. We ourselves
+ are a part of this language; changes in us are changes in the content
+ of the information. We ourselves are information-rich; information
+ enters us, is processed and is then projected outward once more, now
+ in an altered form. We are not aware that we are doing this, that in
+ fact this is all we are doing
+
+=head2 v5.25.4 - Terry Pratchett, "Truckers"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-08-20 by Chris 'BinGOs' Williams|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/08/msg239191.html>
+
+ Concerning Nomes and Time
+
+ Nomes are small. On the whole, small creatures don't live for a long
+ time. But perhaps they do live fast.
+
+ Let me explain.
+
+ One of the shortest-lived creatures on the planet Earth is the adult
+ common mayfly. It lasts for one day. The longest-living things are
+ bristlecone pine trees, at 4,700 years and still counting.
+
+ This may seem tough on the mayflies. But the important thing is not
+ how long your life is, but how long it seems.
+
+ To a mayfly, a single hour may last as long as a century. Perhaps
+ old mayflies sit around complaining about how life this minute isn't a
+ patch on the good old minutes of long ago, when the world was
+ young and the sun seemed so much brighter and larvae showed you a
+ bit of respect. Whereas the trees, which are not famous to their
+ quick reactions, may just have time to notice the way the sky keeps
+ flickering before the dry rot and woodworm set in.
+
+ It's all a sort of relativity. The faster you live, the more time
+ stretches out. To a nome, a year lasts as long as ten years does to a
+ human. Remember it. Don't let it concern you. They don't. They don't
+ even know.
+
+=head2 v5.25.3 - Edward Lear, ed. Vivien Noakes, "The Complete Nonsense and Other Verse": The Dong with a Luminous Nose
+
+L<Announced on 2016-07-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238158.html>
+
+ When awful darkness and silence reign
+ Over the great Gromboolian plain,
+ Through the long, long wintry nights; -
+ When the angry breakers roar
+ As they beat on the rocky shore; -
+ When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights
+ Of the Hills of the Chankly Bore: -
+
+ Then, through the vast and gloomy dark,
+ There moves what seems a fiery spark,
+ A lonely spark with silvery rays
+ Piercing the coal-black night, -
+ A Meteor strange and bright: -
+ Hither and thither the vision strays,
+ A single lurid light.
+
+ Slowly it wanders, - pauses, - creeps, -
+ Anon it sparkles, - flashes and leaps;
+ And ever as onward it gleaming goes
+ A light on the Bong-tree stems it throws.
+ And those who watch at that midnight hour
+ From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower,
+ Cry, as the wild light passes along, -
+ 'The Dong! - the Dong!
+ The wandering Dong through the forest goes!
+ The Dong! the Dong!
+ The Dong with a luminous Nose!'
+
+=head2 v5.25.2 - Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip "Waiting For The Beat To Kick In"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-06-20 by Matthew Horsfall|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/06/msg237274.html>
+
+ Waiting for the beat to kick in
+ But it never does
+ Waiting for my feet to grow wings
+ That lift me above
+ All of these tiresome things
+ That we know and love
+ Waiting for the beat to kick in
+ But it never does
+
+=head2 v5.25.1 - Eli Pariser, "The Filter Bubble"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-05-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236566.html>
+
+Imagine that you're a smart high school student on the low end of the social
+totem pole. You're alienated from adult authority, but unlike many teenagers,
+you're also alienated from the power structures of your peers -- an existence
+that can feel lonely and peripheral. Systems and equations are intuitive, but
+people aren't -- social signals are confusing and messy, difficult to interpret.
+
+Then you discover code. You may be powerless at the lunch table, but code
+gives you power over an infinitely malleable world and opens the door to a
+symbolic system that's perfectly clear and ordered. The jostling for position
+and status fades away. The nagging parental voices disappear. There's just a
+clean, white page for you to fill, an opportunity to build a better place, a
+home, from the ground up.
+
+No wonder you're a geek.
+
+=head2 v5.25.0 - Robert Frost, "The Trial by Existence"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-05-09 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236244.html>
+
+ Even the bravest that are slain
+ Shall not dissemble their surprise
+ On waking to find valor reign,
+ Even as on earth, in paradise;
+ And where they sought without the sword
+ Wide fields of asphodel fore’er,
+ To find that the utmost reward
+ Of daring should be still to dare.
+
+=head2 v5.24.1 - Charles Dodgson [as "Lewis Carroll"], "The Hunting of the Snark", Fit 4: The Hunting
+
+L<Announced on 2017-01-14 by Steve Hay|https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/01/msg242259.html>
+
+ The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow.
+ 'If only you'd spoken before!
+ It's excessively awkward to mention it now,
+ With the Snark, so to speak, at the door!
+
+ 'We should all of us grieve, as you well may believe,
+ If you never were met with again -
+ But surely, my man, when the voyage began,
+ You might have suggested it then?
+
+ 'It's excessively awkward to mention it now -
+ As I think I've already remarked.'
+ And the man they called 'Hi!' replied, with a sigh,
+ 'I informed you the day we embarked.
+
+ 'You may charge me with murder - or want of sense -
+ (We are all of us weak at times):
+ But the slightest approach to a false pretence
+ Was never among my crimes!
+
+ 'I said it in Hebrew - I said it in Dutch -
+ I said it in German and Greek:
+ But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
+ That English is what you speak!'
+
+ ''Tis a pitiful tale,' said the Bellman, whose face
+ Had grown longer at every word:
+ 'But, now that you've stated the whole of your case,
+ More debate would be simply absurd.
+
+ 'The rest of my speech' (he exclaimed to his men)
+ 'You shall hear when I've leisure to speak it.
+ But the Snark is at hand, let me tell you again!
+ 'Tis your glorious duty to seek it!
+
+=head2 v5.24.1-RC5 - John Milton, ed. Gordon Campbell, "Paradise Regained", Book IV
+
+L<Announced on 2017-01-02 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/01/msg242016.html>
+
+ Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair
+ Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey;
+ Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
+ Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
+ And grisly spectres, which the fiend had raised
+ To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
+ And now the sun with more effectual beams
+ Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
+ From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
+ Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
+ After a night of storm so ruinous,
+ Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
+ To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
+
+=head2 v5.24.1-RC4 - John Milton, ed. Gordon Campbell, "Paradise Lost", Book II
+
+L<Announced on 2016-10-12 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/10/msg240224.html>
+
+ Before the gates there sat
+ On either side a formidable shape;
+ The one seemed woman to the waste, and fair,
+ But ended foul in many a scaly fold,
+ Voluminous and vast -- a serpent armed
+ With mortal sting; about her middle round
+ A cry of hell hounds never ceasing barked
+ With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
+ A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
+ If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,
+ And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled
+ Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these
+ Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
+ Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore;
+ Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called
+ In secret, riding through the air she comes,
+ Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance
+ With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon
+ Eclipses at their charms. The other shape --
+ If shape it might be called that shape had none
+ Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
+ Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,
+ For each seemed either -- black it stood as night,
+ Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell,
+ And shook a dreadful dart: what seemed his head
+ The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
+ Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
+ The monster moving onward came as fast
+ With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.
+
+=head2 v5.24.1-RC3 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica III: Paradise, Canto XXIII
+
+L<Announced on 2016-08-11 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/08/msg238909.html>
+
+ A bird within the bower of her delight,
+ Quiet upon the nest with her sweet brood
+ Throughout the dark concealment of the night,
+
+ Anxious to look on them and gather food -
+ No weary task for her, for as at play
+ Blithely she toils to seek her fledglings' good -
+
+ Before the time, upon the topmost spray
+ Eager awaits the sun and on the East
+ Fixes her wakeful eye till break of day.
+
+=head2 v5.24.1-RC2 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica II: Purgatory, Canto X
+
+L<Announced on 2016-07-25 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238269.html>
+
+ When we had crossed the threshold of that gate
+ Which the soul's evil loves put out of use,
+ Because they make the crooked path seem straight,
+
+ I heard its closing clang ring clamorous,
+ And had I then turned back my eyes to it
+ How could my fault have found the least excuse?
+
+ We had to climb now through a rocky slit
+ Which ran from side to side in many a swerve,
+ As runs the wave in onset and retreat.
+
+ "Now here," the master said, "we must observe
+ Some little caution, hugging now this wall,
+ Now that, upon the far side of the curve."
+
+=head2 v5.24.1-RC1 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica I: Hell, Canto XX
+
+L<Announced on 2016-07-17 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238072.html>
+
+ New punishments behoves me sing in this
+ Twentieth canto of my first canticle,
+ Which tells of spirits sunk in the Abyss.
+
+ I now stood ready to observe the full
+ Extent of the new chasm thus laid bare,
+ Drenched as it was in tears most miserable.
+
+ Through the round vale I saw folk drawing near,
+ Weeping and silent, and at such slow pace
+ As Litany processions keep, up here.
+
+ And presently, when I had dropped my gaze
+ Lower than the head, I saw them strangely wried
+ 'Twixt collar-bone and chin, so that the face
+
+ Of each was turned towards his own backside,
+ And backwards must they needs creep with their feet,
+ All power of looking forward being denied.
+
+=head2 v5.24.0 - Robert Frost, "The Black Cottage"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-05-09 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236242.html>
+
+ As I sit here, and oftentimes, I wish
+ I could be monarch of a desert land
+ I could devote and dedicate forever
+ To the truths we keep coming back and back to.
+ So desert it would have to be, so walled
+ By mountain ranges half in summer snow,
+ No one would covet it or think it worth
+ The pains of conquering to force change on.
+ Scattered oases where men dwelt, but mostly
+ Sand dunes held loosely in tamarisk
+ Blown over and over themselves in idleness.
+ Sand grains should sugar in the natal dew
+ The babe born to the desert, the sand storm
+ Retard mid-waste my cowering caravans—
+
+ “There are bees in this wall.” He struck the clapboards,
+ Fierce heads looked out; small bodies pivoted.
+ We rose to go. Sunset blazed on the windows.
+
+=head2 v5.24.0-RC5 - The Mountain Goats, "No Children"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-05-04 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236198.html>
+
+ And I hope when you think of me years down the line
+ You can't find one good thing to say
+ And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out
+ You'd stay the hell out of my way
+
+ I am drowning, there is no sign of land
+ You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand
+
+=head2 v5.24.0-RC4 - The Joker in "The Killing Joke"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-05-02 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236145.html>
+
+"See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum…"
+
+=head2 v5.24.0-RC3 - Jesse Vincent
+
+L<Announced on 2016-04-27 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/04/msg236066.html>
+
+The Great Pumpkin is a Santa-Claus like figure. He does bring toys like
+Santa. But unlike Santa, who gives away toys because it's his job, he
+gives away toys because it's the right thing to do.
+
+=head2 v5.24.0-RC2 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-04-23 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/04/msg235999.html>
+
+“How do you feel, Yossarian?”
+
+“Fine. No, I’m very frightened.”
+
+“That’s good,” said Major Danby. “It proves you’re still alive. It won’t
+be fun.”
+
+Yossarian started out. “Yes it will.”
+
+“I mean it, Yossarian. You’ll have to keep on your toes every minute of
+every day. They’ll bend heaven and earth to catch you.”
+
+“I’ll keep on my toes every minute.”
+
+“You’ll have to jump.”
+
+“I’ll jump.”
+
+“Jump!” Major Danby cried.
+
+Yossarian jumped.
+
+Nately’s [girl] was hiding just outside the door. The knife came down,
+missing him by inches, and he took off.
+
+=head2 v5.24.0-RC1 - Robert Frost, "The Census-Taker"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-04-14 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/04/msg235807.html>
+
+ Nothing was left to do that I could see
+ Unless to find that there was no one there
+ And declare to the cliffs too far for echo,
+ "The place is desert, and let whoso lurks
+ In silence, if in this he is aggrieved,
+ Break silence now or be forever silent.
+ Let him say why it should not be declared so."
+ The melancholy of having to count souls
+ Where they grow fewer and fewer every year
+ Is extreme where they shrink to none at all.
+ It must be I want life to go on living.
+
+=head2 v5.23.9 - Tom Kitchin, "from nature to plate"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-03-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/03/msg235251.html>
+
+Spring
+
+Spring is the proper beginning of my kitchen and a season that I
+look forward to with great anticipation. By the time spring arrives
+I am desperate to welcome all the spring produce into my kitchen
+and I long to work with fresh green vegetables again. As much as I
+love root vegetables, such as celeriac and parsnips, and the heaver
+meat and game dishes, I'm ready to leave those behind with winter
+and begin a new adventure.
+
+Somehow spring always gives me a little bit of bounce in my feet
+-- I feel like I want to kick off my shoes and dance around in my
+kitchen. Not that I do, of course, but I feel lighter somehow. My
+adrenalin kicks in with spring and so does the level of excitement,
+as I think about all the produce that is about to come in.
+
+The moment spring arrives I'm eager to cook peas, broad beans, green
+asparagus and other fresh vegetables! I want to create lighter,
+brighter dishes and I can't wait to get my hands on the first greens
+and the first morels, not to mention the first wild Scottish salmon.
+Thanks to my network of trusted suppliers, I always get to first
+produce of the season delivered to my restaurant as soon as it is
+possible. I want my customers to experience and understand the
+beauty of locally grown produce and to try things the minute they
+are available so they can taste how incredibly fresh the ingredients
+are. I also want them to understand the relationship between
+seasonality and flavours. One of the most important things to
+remember is to allow the seasons to inspire your dishes and help
+you make natural matches. Wild spring herbs, such as sorrel, sweet
+cicely and wild garlic, as well as spring salad leaves and green
+lettuce served with wild salmon, wild sea trout, lamb or rabbit are
+marriages made in heaven.
+
+
+=head2 v5.23.8 - Patrick Rothfuss, "The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller's Chronicle: Day Two)"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-02-20 by Sawyer X|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/02/msg234535.html>
+
+Denna, on the other hand, had never been trained. She knew nothing
+of shortcuts. You'd think she'd be forced to wander the city, lost and
+helpless, trapped in a twisting maze of mortared stone.
+
+But instead, she simply walked throught the walls. She didn't know
+any better. Nobody had ever told her she couldn't. Because of this,
+she moved through the city like some faerie creature. She walked roads
+no one else could see, and it made her music wild and strange and
+free.
+
+=head2 v5.23.7 - William Gibson, "Neuromancer"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-01-20 by Stevan Little|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/01/msg233856.html>
+
+A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading
+nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and
+the corners he cut in Night City, and he'd still see the matrix
+in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that
+colourless void...The Sprawl was a long, strange way home now
+over the Pacific, and he was no Console Man, no cyberspace
+cowboy. Just another hustler, trying to make it through. But
+the dreams came on in the Japanese night like livewire voodoo,
+and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the
+dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin hotel, hands clawed
+into the bedslab, temper foam bunched between his fingers,
+trying to reach the console that wasn't there.
+
+=head2 v5.23.6 - 5.23 Episode VII
+
+L<Announced on 2015-12-21 by David Golden|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/12/msg233475.html>
+
+ A long time ago in microseconds, in a galaxy not very far away...
+
+ 5.23 Episode VII
+ THE FUZZ AWAKENS
+
+ It is a period of
+ unrest as separatists
+ announce their intentions
+ to fork PERL and return the
+ galaxy to speed and stability.
+
+ Chancellor Rik Hoolian struggles
+ to hold together the remains of the
+ once mighty Republic against a tide of
+ incivility and the depredations of a new
+ foe, the FUZZ RAIDERS.
+
+ Meanwhile, after 15 years of preparation and
+ high expectations, Supreme Leader Toady prepares
+ to unleash a devastating new weapon, PERL SIXDOTOH,
+ that could splinter the Republic forever and usher in
+ a new Empire of gradual typing....
+
+=head2 v5.23.5 - utastro!nather (Ed Nather), "The Story of Mel", in net.jokes, May 21, 1983.
+
+L<Announced on 2015-11-20 by Abigail|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/11/msg232758.html>
+
+After Mel had left the company for greener pa$ture$, the Big Boss asked
+me to look at the code and see if I could find the test and reverse it.
+Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed to look. Tracking Mel's code was a real
+adventure.
+
+I have often felt that programming is an art form, whose real value can
+only be appreciated by another versed in the same arcane art; there are
+lovely gems and brilliant coups hidden from human view and admiration,
+sometimes forever, by the very nature of the process. You can learn a
+lot about an individual just by reading through his code, even in
+hexadecimal. Mel was, I think, an unsung genius.
+
+Perhaps my greatest shock came when I found an innocent loop that had
+no test in it. No test. None. Common sense said it had to be a closed
+loop, where the program would circle, forever, endlessly. Program
+control passed right through it, however, and safely out the other side.
+It took me two weeks to figure it out.
+
+The RPC-4000 computer had a really modern facility called an index
+register. It allowed the programmer to write a program loop that used
+an indexed instruction inside; each time through, the number in the
+index register was added to the address of that instruction, so it
+would refer to the next datum in a series. He had only to increment
+the index register each time through. Mel never used it.
+
+Instead, he would pull the instruction into a machine register, add one
+to its address, and store it back. He would then execute the modified
+instruction right from the register. The loop was written so this
+additional execution time was taken into account -- just as this
+instruction finished, the next one was right under the drum's read head,
+ready to go. But the loop had no test in it.
+
+The vital clue came when I noticed the index register bit, the bit that
+lay between the address and the operation code in the instruction word,
+was turned on -- yet Mel never used the index register, leaving it zero
+all the time. When the light went on it nearly blinded me.
+
+He had located the data he was working on near the top of memory -- the
+largest locations the instructions could address -- so, after the last
+datum was handled, incrementing the instruction address would make it
+overflow. The carry would add one to the operation code, changing it to
+the next one in the instruction set: a jump instruction. Sure enough,
+the next program instruction was in address location zero, and the
+program went happily on its way.
+
=head2 v5.23.4 - Denis Diderot, trans. David Coward, "Jacques the Fatalist"
L<Announced on 2015-10-20 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/10/msg232040.html>
Will chase the sun into the morning
Beyond the sky, beyond the sea.
-=head2 v5.23.0 - Bob Dylan, Maggie's Farm
+=head2 v5.23.0 - Bob Dylan, "Maggie's Farm"
L<Announced on 2015-06-20 by Ricardo Signes|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/06/msg228807.html>
They sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
+=head2 v5.22.3 - Charles Dodgson [as "Lewis Carroll"], "Phantasmagoria", Canto 6: Discomfyture
+
+L<Announced on 2017-01-14 by Steve Hay|https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/01/msg242258.html>
+
+ As one who strives a hill to climb,
+ Who never climbed before:
+ Who finds it, in a little time,
+ Grow every moment less sublime,
+ And votes the thing a bore:
+
+ Yet, having once begun to try,
+ Dares not desert his quest,
+ But, climbing, ever keeps his eye
+ On one small hut against the sky
+ Wherein he hopes to rest:
+
+ Who climbs till nerve and force are spent,
+ With many a puff and pant:
+ Who still, as rises the ascent,
+ In language grows more violent,
+ Although in breath more scant:
+
+ Who, climbing, gains at length the place
+ That crowns the upward track:
+ And, entering with unsteady pace,
+ Receives a buffet in the face
+ That lands him on his back:
+
+ And feels himself, like one in sleep,
+ Glide swiftly down again,
+ A helpless weight, from steep to steep,
+ Till, with a headlong giddy sweep,
+ He drops upon the plain -
+
+ So I, that had resolved to bring
+ Conviction to a ghost,
+ And found it quite a different thing
+ From any human arguing,
+ Yet dared not quit my post.
+
+=head2 v5.22.3-RC5 - John Milton, ed. Gordon Campbell, "Paradise Regained", Book II
+
+L<Announced on 2017-01-02 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2017/01/msg242017.html>
+
+ Thus wore out night; and now the herald lark
+ Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
+ The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song;
+ As lightly from his grassy couch up rose
+ Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
+ Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
+ Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
+ From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
+ If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd;
+ But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw --
+ Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
+ With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud;
+ Thither he bent his way, determined there
+ To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade,
+ High-roofed and walks beneath, and alleys brown,
+ That opened in the midst a woody scene;
+ Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art),
+ And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt
+ Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs.
+
+=head2 v5.22.3-RC4 - John Milton, ed. Gordon Campbell, "Paradise Lost", Book II
+
+L<Announced on 2016-10-12 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/10/msg240223.html>
+
+ Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
+ Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
+ Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
+ Forthwith his former state and being forgets --
+ Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
+ Beyond this flood a frozen continent
+ Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
+ Of Whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
+ Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
+ Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,
+ A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
+ Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
+ Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
+ Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
+ Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
+ At certain revolutions all the damned
+ Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
+ Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
+ From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
+ Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
+ Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
+ Periods of time -- thence hurried back to fire.
+ They ferry over this Lethean sound
+ Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
+ And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
+ The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
+ In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
+ All in one moment, and so near the brink;
+ But fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt,
+ Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
+ The ford, and of itself the water flies
+ All taste of living wight, as once it fled
+ The lip of Tantalus.
+
+=head2 v5.22.3-RC3 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica III: Paradise, Canto IV
+
+L<Announced on 2016-08-11 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/08/msg238908.html>
+
+ Between two dishes, equally attractive
+ And near to him, a free man, I suppose,
+ Would starve to death before his teeth got active;
+
+ So would a lamb 'twixt two fierce wolfish foes,
+ Fearing the fangs both ways, not stir a foot;
+ So would a deerhound halt between two does;
+
+ So I can't blame myself for standing mute,
+ Nor praise myself: for I must needs so do,
+ Suspended 'twixt two doubts, alike acute.
+
+=head2 v5.22.3-RC2 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica II: Purgatory, Canto I
+
+L<Announced on 2016-07-25 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238270.html>
+
+ For better waters heading with the wind
+ My ship of genius now shakes out her sail
+ And leaves that ocean of despair behind;
+
+ For to the second realm I tune my tale,
+ Where human spirits purge themselves, and train
+ To leap up into joy celestial.
+
+ Now from the grave wake poetry again,
+ O sacred Muses I have served so long!
+ Now let Calliope uplift her strain
+
+ And lift my voice up on the mighty song
+ That smote the miserable Magpies nine
+ Out of all hope of pardon for their wrong!
+
+=head2 v5.22.3-RC1 - Dante Alighieri, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Divine Comedy", Cantica I: Hell, Canto XII
+
+L<Announced on 2016-07-17 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238071.html>
+
+ The place we came to, to descend the brink from,
+ Was sheer crag; and there was a Thing there - making,
+ All told, a prospect any eye would shrink from.
+
+ Like the great landslide that rushed downward, shaking
+ The bank of Adige on this side Trent,
+ (Whether through faulty shoring or the earth's quaking)
+
+ So that the rock, down from the summit rent
+ Far as the plain, lies strewn, and one might crawl
+ From top to bottom by that unsure descent,
+
+ Such was the precipice; and there we spied,
+ Topping the cleft that split the rocky wall,
+ That which was wombed in the false heifer's side,
+
+ The infamy of Crete, stretched out a-sprawl;
+ And seeing us, he gnawed himself, like one
+ Inly devoured with spite and burning gall.
+
+=head2 v5.22.2 - Gaston Leroux, trans. Mireille Ribière, "The Phantom of the Opera"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-04-29 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/04/msg236120.html>
+
+A silence; and then: 'If, in just two minutes' time by my watch--and a
+splendid watch it is--you have not turned the scorpion, mademoiselle, I
+shall turn the grasshopper... and the grasshopper, remember, _leaps
+straight up into the air!_'
+The silence that ensued was terrifying, worse than any we had
+experienced before. I knew that when Erik spoke with that quiet,
+gentle, slightly weary voice, it meant that he had reached the end of
+his tether: that he was capable of the most abominable crimes or the
+most selfless devotion; that the slightest irritation might unleash a
+storm.
+Realizing that our fate was out of our hands, the Viscount fell to his
+knees and prayed. As for me, I pressed both hands to my chest, for my
+heart was pounding so fiercely that I thought it would burst. We were
+intensely aware of the excruciating dilemma Christine Daaé faced in
+those final seconds. We understood why she hesitated to turn the
+scorpion. What if the scorpion, rather than the grasshopper, were to
+set off the explosion? What if Erik was simply intent on destroying
+everything, regardless?
+At last he spoke: 'The two minutes are up,' he said in a soft, angelic
+voice. 'Goodbye, mademoiselle. Off you go, little grasshopper!'
+
+=head2 v5.22.2-RC1 - Gaston Leroux, trans. Mireille Ribière, "The Phantom of the Opera"
+
+L<Announced on 2016-04-10 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/04/msg235732.html>
+
+This annual ball was quite a magnificent affair. It was given some time
+before Shrovetide to celebrate the birthday of a famous illustrator
+whose pencil had immortalized, in the style of Gavarni, the extravagant
+carnival parade down La Courtille. As such, the ball was an altogether
+merrier, noisier and more Bohemian occasion than was usual for a masked
+ball. Many artists had arranged to meet there; they arrived with an
+entourage of models and pupils, who, by midnight, had become quite
+boisterous.
+Raoul climbed the grand staircase at five minutes to midnight. He did
+not linger to admire the many-coloured costumes on display all the way
+up the marble steps of one of the most luxurious settings in the world;
+nor did he allow himself to be drawn into the facetious conversation of
+masked guests. He simply ignored all the jesting remarks, and shook off
+the attentions of several all too merry couples.
+Crossing the big crush-room and escaping from the dancers' farandole
+that had encircled him awhile, he at last entered the salon mentioned by
+Christine in her letter. The small room was crammed with people either
+on their way to supper at the restaurant in the Rotunda or back from
+raising a glass of champagne.
+In the midst of the gay and lively hubbub, Raoul thought that, for their
+mysterious assignation, Christine must have preferred this crowd to some
+lonely corner.
+He leaned against a door-jamb and waited. He did not have to wait long;
+a black domino passed him and deftly touched his hand. He understood
+that it was Christine and followed her.
+'Is that you, Christine?' he murmured, barely moving his slips.
+The black domino promptly looked back and raised her finger to her lips,
+no doubt to caution him against uttering her name again. Raoul followed
+on in silence.
+
+=head2 v5.22.1 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "Courage" (No. 22 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
+
+L<Announced on 2015-12-13 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/12/msg233318.html>
+
+ If the snow flies in my face,
+ Let me shake it off me!
+ If my heart within me speaks,
+ I'll sing bright and gaily!
+
+ Will not listen what it says,
+ Have no ears for moaning.
+ Do not feel what it complains,--
+ Only fools like groaning!
+
+ Jolly brave into the world,
+ 'Gainst all wind and weather,--
+ If there is no God on earth,
+ Let 's be gods down nether!
+
+=head2 v5.22.1-RC4 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "The Signpost" (No. 20 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
+
+L<Announced on 2015-12-08 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/12/msg233215.html>
+
+ Why do I shun all those highways
+ Which the other wanderer seeks?
+ Why do I find bridged by-ways
+ Through snow-covered deep creeks?
+
+ For I have no crime committed,
+ Why I should now run from men,--
+ What demented heart's desire
+ Drives me to a desert glen?
+
+ Signposts on all highways stationed
+ Point their signs toward the towns,
+ Whilst I wonder 'yond moderation,
+ Without rest, yet seeking rest!
+
+ One such signpost I see planted
+ Of my question unconcerned,
+ One road must my choice be granted,
+ Whence no man has yet returned!
+
+=head2 v5.22.1-RC3 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "Stormy Morning" (No. 18 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
+
+L<Announced on 2015-12-02 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/12/msg233032.html>
+
+ How the storm tore rents
+ In heavens gray attired!
+ The rags of cloud are flying
+ Around, of combat tired.
+
+ And flames of fire lambent,
+ Fly between them and part,
+ That 's what I call a morning,
+ A morning after my heart!
+
+ My heart sees in the heavens
+ Its own picture unspoilt--
+ It's nothing but the Winter,
+ The Winter, cold and wild.
+
+=head2 v5.22.1-RC2 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "The Old Head" (No. 14 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
+
+L<Announced on 2015-11-15 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/11/msg232632.html>
+
+ The hoary frost has a white sheen
+ Strewn all over my hair,
+ So I thought I was an old man
+ And thought life dealt me fair.
+
+ Yet soon was thawed my old white mane,
+ And I have my black hair again.
+ How I abhor my young fair years,
+ How long to wait for death and biers?
+
+ From setting sun to morning's hue
+ Many a head turns white.
+ Who'll credit it? My hair did not
+ In all this lifelong plight!
+
=head2 v5.22.1-RC1 - Wilhelm Müller, trans. Anon., "Will-o'-the Wisp" (No. 9 in Schubert's song-cycle, "Winterreise")
L<Announced on 2015-10-31 by Steve Hay|http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2015/10/msg232321.html>