From: David Golden Date: Wed, 19 May 2010 16:20:40 +0000 (-0400) Subject: document historical release epigrams X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=4363636da3405b18edb34fc8dfb44718062944b1;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git document historical release epigrams --- diff --git a/Porting/epigrams.pod b/Porting/epigrams.pod new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6a1259 --- /dev/null +++ b/Porting/epigrams.pod @@ -0,0 +1,1053 @@ +=head1 NAME + +perlepigrams - list of Perl release epigrams + +=head1 DESCRIPTION + +Many Perl release announcements included an I, a short excerpt +from a literary or other creative work, chosen by the pumpking or +release manager. This file assembles the known list of epigrams for +posterity. + +=head1 EPIGRAMS + +=head2 v5.13.0 - Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth" + +=over + +The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an +involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been +when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and +streams of boiling lava -- all of which must have come up by the +road we were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot +seething stone darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of +smoke, steam, and sulphurous stench! + +"Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old +volcano were once more to set to work." + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.1 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle" + +=over + +"Now suppose," chortled Dr. Breed, enjoying himself, "that there were +many possible ways in which water could crystallize, could freeze. +Suppose that the sort of ice we skate upon and put into highballs— +what we might call ice-one—is only one of several types of ice. +Suppose water always froze as ice-one on Earth because it had never +had a seed to teach it how to form ice-two, ice-three, ice-four +...? And suppose," he rapped on his desk with his old hand again, +"that there were one form, which we will call ice-nine—a crystal as +hard as this desk—with a melting point of, let us say, one-hundred +degrees Fahrenheit, or, better still, a melting point of one-hundred- +and-thirty degrees." + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle" + +=over + +San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from +the supplement to the New York Sunday Times. Its population was four +hundred, fifty thousand souls, "...all fiercely dedicated to the ideals +of the Free World." + +Its highest point, Mount McCabe, was eleven thousand feet above sea +level. Its capital was Bolivar, "...a strikingly modern city built on a +harbor capable of sheltering the entire United States Navy." The principal +exports were sugar, coffee, bananas, indigo, and handcrafted novelties. + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.1-RC2 - Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle" + +=over + +Which brings me to the Bokononist concept of a wampeter. A wampeter is +the pivot of a karass. No karass is without a wampeter, Bokonon tells us, +just as no wheel is without a hub. Anything can be a wampeter: a tree, +a rock, an animal, an idea, a book, a melody, the Holy Grail. Whatever +it is, the members of its karass revolve about it in the majestic chaos +of a spiral nebula. The orbits of the members of a karass about their +common wampeter are spiritual orbits, naturally. It is souls and not +bodies that revolve. As Bokonon invites us to sing: + + Around and around and around we spin, + With feet of lead and wings of tin . . . + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was +not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why +your cat grins like that?' + +'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!' + +She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite +jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, +and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:-- + +'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know +that cats COULD grin.' + +'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.' + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC5 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words +have got altered.' + +'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and +there was silence for some minutes. + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC4 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't +always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and +rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and +yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what +can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that +kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC3 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, +called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you +dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse +in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt +sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon. + +'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This +is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William +the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted +to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much +accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of +Mercia and Northumbria—"' + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC2 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the +hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of +making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and +picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran +close by her. + +There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so +VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh +dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it +occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time +it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH +OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, +Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had +never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to +take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field +after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large +rabbit-hole under the hedge. + +In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how +in the world she was to get out again. + +=back + +=head2 v5.12.0-RC0 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.11.5 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel" + +=over + + A little child, a limber elf, + Singing, dancing to itself, + A fairy thing with red round cheeks, + That always finds, and never seeks, + Makes such a vision to the sight + As fills a father's eyes with light; + And pleasures flow in so thick and fast + Upon his heart, that he at last + Must needs express his love's excess + With words of unmeant bitterness. + Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together + Thoughts so all unlike each other; + To mutter and mock a broken charm, + To dally with wrong that does no harm. + Perhaps 'tis tender too and pretty + At each wild word to feel within + A sweet recoil of love and pity. + And what, if in a world of sin + (O sorrow and shame should this be true!) + Such giddiness of heart and brain + Comes seldom save from rage and pain, + So talks as it's most used to do. + +=back + +=head2 v5.11.4 - Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment" + +=over + +And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went +into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you +mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to +question myself whether I had the right to gain power -- I certainly +hadn't the right -- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a +louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man +who would go straight to his goal without asking questions.... If I +worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have +done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon. + +=back + +=head2 v5.11.3 - Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" + +=over + +"Say -- I'm going in a swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of +course you'd druther work—wouldn't you? Course you would!" + +Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: "What do you call work?" + +"Why ain't that work?" + +Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: "Well, maybe it +is, and maybe it aint. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer." + +"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?" + +The brush continued to move. "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't +to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" + +That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom +swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect +-- added a touch here and there-criticised the effect again -- Ben +watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more +absorbed. Presently he said: "Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little." + +=back + + +=head2 v5.11.2 - Michael Marshall Smith, "Only Forward" + +=over + +The streets were pretty quiet, which was nice. They're always quiet here +at that time: you have to be wearing a black jacket to be out on the +streets between seven and nine in the evening, and not many people in +the area have black jackets. It's just one of those things. I currently +live in Colour Neighbourhood, which is for people who are heavily into +colour. All the streets and buildings are set for instant colourmatch: +as you walk down the road they change hue to offset whatever you're +wearing. When the streets are busy it's kind of intense, and anyone +prone to epileptic seizures isn't allowed to live in the Neighbourhood, +however much they're into colour. + +=back + +=head2 v5.11.1 - Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" + +=over + +Milo had been caught red-handed in the act of plundering his countrymen, +and, as a result, his stock had never been higher. He proved good as his +word when a rawboned major from Minnesota curled his lip in rebellious +disavowal and demanded his share of the syndicate Milo kept saying +everybody owned. Milo met the challenge by writing the words "A Share" +on the nearest scrap of paper and handing it away with a virtuous disdain +that won the envy and admiration of almost everyone who knew him. His +glory was at a peak, and Colonel Cathcart, who knew and admired his +war record, was astonished by the deferential humility with which Mil +presented himself at Group Headquarters and made his fantastic appeal +for more hazardous assignment. + +=back + +=head2 v5.11.0 - Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita" + +=over + +Whispers of an "evil power" were heard in lines at dairy shops, in +streetcars, stores, arguments, kitchens, suburban and long-distance +trains, at stations large and small, in dachas and on beaches. Needless +to say, truly mature and cultured people did not tell these stories +about an evil power's visit to the capital. In fact, they even made fun +of them and tried to talk sense into those who told them. Nevertheless, +facts are facts, as they say, and cannot simply be dismissed without +explanation: somebody had visited the capital. The charred cinders of +Griboyedov alone, and many other things besides, confirmed it. Cultured +people shared the point of view of the investigating team: it was the +work of a gang of hypnotists and ventriloquists magnificently skilled in +their art. + +=back + + +=head2 v5.10.1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister" + +=over + +'Briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as +the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private +Secretary. I, too, have a Principal Private Secretary, and he is the +Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly +responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, eighty-seven Under +Secretaries and two hundred and nineteen Assistant Secretaries. +Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain +Private Secretaries. The Prime Minister will be appointing two +Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own +Parliamentary Private Secretary.' + +'Can they all type?' I joked. + +'None of us can type, Minister,' replied Sir Humphrey smoothly. 'Mrs +McKay types - she is your Secretary.' + +I couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. 'What a pity,' I said. +'We could have opened an agency.' + +Sir Humphrey and Bernard laughed. 'Very droll, sir,' said Sir +Humphrey. 'Most amusing, sir,' said Bernard. Were they genuinely +amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 'I suppose they +all say that, do they?' I ventured. + +Sir Humphrey reassured me on that. 'Certainly not, Minister,' he +replied. 'Not quite all.' + +=back + +=head2 v5.10.1-RC2 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.10.1-RC1 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.10.0 - Laurence Sterne, "Tristram Shandy" + +=over + +He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that +he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it +out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short +noses.--And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it +must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same +number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line, +did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom. + +=back + +=head2 v5.10.0-RC2 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.10.0-RC1 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.9.5 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.9.4 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.9.3 - no epigram + +=head2 v5.9.2 - Thomas Pynchon, "V" + +=over + +This word flip was weird. Every recording date of McClintic's he'd +gotten into the habit of talking electricity with the audio men and +technicians of the studio. McClintic once couldn't have cared less +about electricity, but now it seemed if that was helping him reach a +bigger audience, some digging, some who would never dig, but all +paying and those royalties keeping the Triumph in gas and McClintic +in J. Press suits, then McClintic ought to be grateful to +electricity, ought maybe to learn a little more about it. So he'd +picked up some here and there, and one day last summer he got around +to talking stochastic music and digital computers with one +technician. Out of the conversation had come Set/Reset, which was +getting to be a signature for the group. He had found out from this +sound man about a two-triode circuit called a flip-flop, which when +it turned on could be one of two ways, depending on which tube was +conducting and which was cut off: set or reset, flip or flop. + +"And that," the man said, "can be yes or no, or one or zero. And +that is what you might call one of the basic units, or specialized +`cells' in a big `electronic brain.' " + +"Crazy," said McClintic, having lost him back there someplace. But +one thing that did occur to him was if a computer's brain could go +flip or flop, why so could a musician's. As long as you were flop, +everything was cool. But where did the trigger-pulse come from to +make you flip? + +=back + +=head2 v5.9.1 - Tom Stoppard, "Arcadia" + +=over + +Aren't you supposed to have a pony? + +=back + +=head2 v5.9.0 - Doris Lessing, "Martha Quest" + +=over + +What of October, that ambiguous month + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.9 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister" + +=over + +Frank and I, unlike the civil servants, were still puzzled that such a +proposal as the Europass could even be seriously under consideration by +the FCO. We can both see clearly that it is wonderful ammunition for the +anti-Europeans. I asked Humphrey if the Foreign Office doesn't realise +how damaging this would be to the European ideal? + +'I'm sure they do, Minister, he said. That's why they support it.' + +This was even more puzzling, since I'd always been under the impression +that the FO is pro-Europe. 'Is it or isn't it?' I asked Humphrey. + +'Yes and no,' he replied of course, 'if you'll pardon the +expression. The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it is really +anti-Europe. In fact the Civil Service was united in its desire to make +sure the Common Market didn't work. That's why we went into it.' + +This sounded like a riddle to me. I asked him to explain further. And +basically his argument was as follows: Britain has had the same foreign +policy objective for at least the last five hundred years - to create a +disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against +the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, with the French and +Italians against the Germans, and with the French against the Italians +and Germans. [The Dutch rebellion against Phillip II of Spain, the +Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War - Ed.] + +In other words, divide and rule. And the Foreign Office can see no +reason to change when it has worked so well until now. + +I was aware of this, naturally, but I regarded it as ancient history. +Humphrey thinks that it is, in fact, current policy. It was necessary +for us to break up the EEC, he explained, so we had to get inside. We +had previously tried to break it up from the outside, but that didn't +work. [A reference to our futile and short-lived involvement in EFTA, +the European Free Trade Association, founded in 1960 and which the UK +left in 1972 - Ed.] Now that we're in, we are able to make a complete +pig's breakfast out of it. We've now set the Germans against the French, +the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch... and +the Foreign office is terribly happy. It's just like old time. + +I was staggered by all of this. I thought that the all of us who are +publicly pro-European believed in the European ideal. I said this to Sir +Humphrey, and he simply chuckled. + +So I asked him: if we don't believe in the European Ideal, why are we +pushing to increase the membership? + +'Same reason,' came the reply. 'It's just like the United Nations. The +more members it has, the more arguments you can stir up, and the more +futile and impotent it becomes.' + +This all strikes me as the most appalling cynicism, and I said so. + +Sir Humphrey agreed completely. 'Yes Minister. We call it +diplomacy. It's what made Britain great, you know.' + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.9-RC2 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister" + +=over + +There was silence in the office. I didn't know what we were going to do +about the four hundred new people supervising our economy drive or the +four hundred new people for the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office, or +anything! I simply sat and waited and hoped that my head would stop +thumping and that some idea would be suggested by someone sometime soon. + +Sir Humphrey obliged. 'Minister... if we were to end the economy drive +and close the Bureaucratic Watchdog Office we could issue an immediate +press announcement that you had axed eight hundred jobs.' He had +obviously thought this out carefully in advance, for at this moment he +produced a slim folder from under his arm. 'If you'd like to approve +this draft...' + +I couldn't believe the impertinence of the suggestion. Axed eight +hundred jobs? 'But no one was ever doing these jobs,' I pointed out +incredulously. 'No one's been appointed yet.' + +'Even greater economy,' he replied instantly. 'We've saved eight hundred +redundancy payments as well.' + +'But...' I attempted to explain '... that's just phony. It's dishonest, +it's juggling with figures, it's pulling the wool over people's eyes.' + +'A government press release, in fact.' said Humphrey. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.9-RC1 - Right Hon. James Hacker MP, "The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister" + +=over + +A jumbo jet touched down, with BURANDAN AIRWAYS written on the side. I +was hugely impressed. British Airways are having to pawn their Concordes, +and here is this little tiny African state with its own airline, jumbo +jets and all. + +I asked Bernard how many planes Burandan Airways had. 'None,' he said. + +I told him not to be silly and use his eyes. 'No Minister, it belongs to +Freddie Laker,' he said. 'They chartered it last week and repainted it +specially.' Apparently most of the Have-Nots (I mean, LDCs) do this - at +the opening of the UN General Assembly the runways of Kennedy Airport are +jam-packed with phoney flag-carriers. 'In fact,' said Bernard with a sly +grin, 'there was one 747 that belonged to nine different African airlines +in a month. They called it the mumbo-jumbo.' + +While we watched nothing much happening on the TV except the mumbo-jumbo +taxiing around Prestwick and the Queen looking a bit chilly, Bernard gave +me the next day's schedule and explained that I was booked on the night +sleeper from King's Cross to Edinburgh because I had to vote in a +three-line whip at the House tonight and would have to miss the last +plane. Then the commentator, in that special hushed BBC voice used for any +occasion with which Royalty is connected, announced reverentially that we +were about to catch our first glimpse of President Selim. + +And out of the plane stepped Charlie. My old friend Charlie Umtali. We +were at LSE together. Not Selim Mohammed at all, but Charlie. + +Bernard asked me if I were sure. Silly question. How could you forget a +name like Charlie Umtali? + +I sent Bernard for Sir Humphrey, who was delighted to hear that we now +know something about our official visitor. + +Bernard's official brief said nothing. Amazing! Amazing how little the FCO +has been able to find out. Perhaps they were hoping it would all be on the +car radio. All the brief says is that Colonel Selim Mohammed had converted +to Islam some years ago, they didn't know his original name, and therefore +knew little of his background. + +I was able to tell Humphrey and Bernard /all/ about his background. +Charlie was a red-hot political economist, I informed them. Got the top +first. Wiped the floor with everyone. + +Bernard seemed relieved. 'Well that's all right then.' + +'Why?' I enquired. + +'I think Bernard means,' said Sir Humphrey helpfully, 'that he'll know how +to behave if he was at an English University. Even if it was the LSE.' I +never know whether or not Humphrey is insulting me intentionally. + +Humphrey was concerned about Charlie's political colour. 'When you said +that he was red-hot, were you speaking politically?' + +In a way I was. 'The thing about Charlie is that you never quite know +where you are with him. He's the sort of chap who follows you into a +revolving door and comes out in front.' + +'No deeply held convictions?' asked Sir Humphrey. + +'No. The only thing Charlie was committed too was Charlie.' + +'Ah, I see. A politician, Minister.' + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.8 - Joe Raposo, "Bein' Green" + +=over + + It's not that easy bein' green + Having to spend each day the color of the leaves + When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold + Or something much more colorful like that + + It's not easy bein' green + It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things + And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're + Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water + Or stars in the sky + + But green's the color of Spring + And green can be cool and friendly-like + And green can be big like an ocean + Or important like a mountain + Or tall like a tree + + When green is all there is to be + It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why? + Wonder I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful + And I think it's what I want to be + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.8-RC1 - Cosgrove Hall Productions, "Dangermouse" + +=over + + Greenback: And the world is mine, all mine. Muhahahahaha. See to it! + + Stiletto: Si, Barone. Subito, Barone. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.7 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf" + +=over + +And now, imagine the triumphant procession: Peter at the head; after him the +hunters leading the wolf; and winding up the procession, grandfather and the +cat. + +Grandfather shook his head discontentedly: "Well, and if Peter hadn't caught +the wolf? What then?" + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.7-RC1 - Sergei Prokofiev, "Peter and the Wolf" + +=over + +And now this is how things stood: The cat was sitting on one branch. The +bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and +round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes. + +In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the +gate, watching all that was going on. He ran home,got a strong rope and +climbed up the high stone wall. + +One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking, +stretched out over the wall. + +Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree. +Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle round the wolf's head, only +take care that he doesn't catch you!". + +The bird almost touched the wolf's head with its wings, while the wolf +snapped angrily at him from this side and that. + +How that bird teased the wolf, how that wolf wanted to catch him! But +the bird was clever and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.6 - A. A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner" + +=over + +"Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew it was +you." + +"So did I,", said Pooh. "What are you doing?" + +"I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow up into an oak-tree, +and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having +to walk miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?" + +"Supposing it doesn't?" said Pooh. + +"It will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so that's why I'm +planting it." + +"Well," aid Pooh, "if I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will +grow up into a beehive." + +Piglet wasn't quite sure about this. + +"Or a /piece/ of a honeycomb," said Pooh, "so as not to waste too much. +Only then I might only get a piece of a beehive, and it might be the +wrong piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunnying. Bother" + +Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering. + +"Besides, Pooh, it's a very difficult thing, planting unless you know +how to do it," he said; and he put the acorn in the hole he had made, +and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.6-RC1 - A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh" + +=over + +"Hallo!" said Piglet, "whare are /you/ doing?" + +"Hunting," said Pooh. + +"Hunting what?" + +"Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously. + +"Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer. + +"That's just what I ask myself, I ask myself, What?" + +"What do you think you'll answer?" + +"I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh. +"Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do +you see there?" + +"Track," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of +excitement. "Oh, Pooh!" Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?" + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.5 - wikipedia, "Yew" + +=over + +Yews are relatively slow growing trees, widely used in landscaping and +ornamental horticulture. They have flat, dark-green needles, reddish +bark, and bear seeds with red arils, which are eaten by thrushes, +waxwings and other birds, dispersing the hard seeds undamaged in their +droppings. Yew wood is reddish brown (with white sapwood), and very +hard. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the English +longbow. + +In England, the Common Yew (Taxus baccata, also known as English Yew) is +often found in churchyards. It is sometimes suggested that these are +placed there as a symbol of long life or trees of death, and some are +likely to be over 3,000 years old. It is also suggested that yew trees +may have a pre-Christian association with old pagan holy sites, and the +Christian church found it expedient to use and take over existing sites. +Another explanation is that the poisonous berries and foliage discourage +farmers and drovers from letting their animals wander into the burial +grounds. The yew tree is a frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of +T.S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.5-RC2 - wikipedia, "Beech" + +=over + +Beeches are trees of the Genus Fagus, family Fagaceae, including about +ten species in Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are entire or +sparsely toothed. The fruit is a small, sharply-angled nut, borne in +pairs in spiny husks. The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental or +shade tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica). + +The southern beeches belong to a different but related genus, +Nothofagus. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New +Caledonia and South America. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.5-RC1 - wikipedia, "Pedunculate Oak" (abridged) + +=over + +The Pedunculate Oak is called the Common Oak in Britain, and is also +often called the English Oak in other English speaking countries It is a +large deciduous tree to 25-35m tall (exceptionally to 40m), with lobed +and sessile (stalk-less) leaves. Flowering takes place in early to mid +spring, and their fruit, called "acorns", ripen by autumn of the same +year. The acorns are pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk) and +may occur singly, or several acorns may occur on a stalk. + +It forms a long-lived tree, with a large widespreading head of rugged +branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many +of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques +that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health. + +Within its native range it is valued for its importance to insects and +other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the +acorns. The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small +mammals and some birds, notably Jays Garrulus glandarius. + +It is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable +heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.4 - T. S. Eliot, "The Old Gumbie Cat" + +=over + + I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots; + The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots. + She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat: + She sits and sits and sits and sits -- and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat! + + But when the day's hustle and bustle is done, + Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun. + She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment + To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment. + So she's formed, from that a lot of disorderly louts, + A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts, + With a purpose in life and a good deed to do-- + And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo. + + + So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers -- + On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears. + +=back + + +=head2 v5.8.4-RC2 - T. S. Eliot, "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" + +=over + + Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -- + For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law. + He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair: + For when they reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/! + + Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, + He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity. + His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare, + And when you reach the scene of crime -- /Macavity's not there/! + You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -- + But I tell you once and once again, /Macavity's not there/! + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.4-RC1 - T. S. Eliot, "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" + +=over + + There's a whisper down the line at 11.39 + When the Night Mail's ready to depart, + Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble? + We must find him of the train can't start.' + All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster's daughters + They are searching high and low, + Saying 'Skimble where is Skimble for unless he's very nimble + Then the Night Mail just can't go' + At 11.42 then the signal's overdue + And the passengers are frantic to a man-- + Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear: + He's been busy in the luggage van! + He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes + And the the signal goes 'All Clear!' + And we're off at last of the northern part + Of the Northern Hemisphere! + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.3 - Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy, "Ode" + +=over + + We are the music makers, + And we are the dreamers of dreams, + Wandering by lonely sea-breakers, + And sitting by desolate streams; -- + World-losers and world-forsakers, + On whom the pale moon gleams: + Yet we are the movers and shakers + Of the world for ever, it seems. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.3-RC1 - Irving Berlin, "Let's Face the Music and Dance" + +=over + + There may be trouble ahead, + But while there's music and moonlight, + And love and romance, + Let's face the music and dance. + + Before the fiddlers have fled, + Before they ask us to pay the bill, + And while we still have that chance, + Let's face the music and dance. + + Soon, we'll be without the moon, + Humming a different tune, and then, + + There may be teardrops to shed, + So while there's music and moonlight, + And love and romance, + Let's face the music and dance. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.2 - Walt Whitman, "Passage to India" + +=over + + Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! + Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor! + Cut the hawsers - hall out - shake out every sail! + Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough? + Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes? + Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough? + + + Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only, + Reckless O soul, exploring, I with the and thou with me, + For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, + And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. + + O my brave soul! + O farther farther sail! + O daring job, but safe! are they not all the seas of God? + O farther, farther, farther sail! + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.2-RC2 - Eric Idle/John Du Prez, "Accountancy Shanty" + +=over + + It's fun to charter an accountant + And sail the wide accountan-cy, + To find, explore the funds offshore + And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.2-RC1 - Edward Lear, "The Jumblies" + +=over + + They went to sea in a Sieve, they did, + In a Sieve they went to sea: + In spite of all their friends could say, + On a winter's morn, on a stormy day, + In a Sieve they went to sea! + And when the Sieve turned round and round, + And everyone cried, "You'll all be drowned!" + They cried aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big, + But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig! + In a Sieve we'll go to sea!" + + Far and few, far and few, + Are the lands where the Jumblies live; + Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, + And they went to sea in a Sieve. + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.1 - Terry Pratchett, "The Color of Magic" + +=over + +"What happens next?" asked Twoflower. + +Hrun screwed a finger in his ear and inspected it absently. + +"Oh,", he said, "I expect in a minute the door will be +flung back and I'll be dragged off to some sort of temple +arena where I'll fight maybe a couple of giant spiders +and an eight-foot slave from the jungles of Klatch and then +I'll rescue some kind of a princess from the altar and then +I'll kill off a few guards or whatever and then this girl +will show me the secret passage out of the place and we'll +liberate a couple of horses and escape with the treasure." +Hrun leaned his head back on his hands and looked at the +ceiling, whistling tunelessly. + +"All that?" said Twoflower. + +"Usually." + +=back + +=head2 v5.8.1-RC5 - Terry Pratchett, "Lords and Ladies" + +=over + +No matter what she did with her hair it took about +three minutes for it to tangle itself up again, +like a garden hosepipe in a shed [Footnote: Which, +no matter how carefully coiled, will always uncoil +overnight and tie the lawnmower to the bicycles]. + +=back + +=head2 v5.6.2 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy" + +=over + +When great or unexpected events fall out upon the stage of this +sublunary word--the mind of man, which is an inquisitive kind of +a substance, naturally takes a flight, behind the scenes, to see +what is the cause and first spring of them--The search was not +long in this instance. + +=back + +=head2 v5.6.2-RC1 - Sterne, "Tristram Shandy" + +=over + +"Pray, my dear", quoth my mother, "have you not forgot to wind up the clock?" + +=back + +=head2 5.005_05-RC1 - no epigram + +=head2 5.005_04 - no epigram + +=head2 5.005_04-RC2 - Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book" + +=over + +The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise +the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they +never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use +them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council +chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would +run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster +and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them, +and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up +and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake +the rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers +fall. + +=back + +=head2 5.005_04-RC1 - Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" + +=over + +Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had +plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was +going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what +she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked +at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with +cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures +hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she +passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great +disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear +of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as +she fell past it. + +=back + +=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS + +This document was originally compiled based on a list of epigrams +on L titled +L +by ysth. + +=cut +# vim:tw=72: