For a year past, he knew the inevitable, yet by his indomitable will kept strongheartedly to his' work, sustained by a rugged vitality.

…; that the fruit is very good eating, either raw or boiled, and that the seeds, distinguished by a mustard-like pungency, are an efficacious vermifuge for children.

I lost complete track of Frank Sinatra and while I was hunting for him I saw a fellow with my tramp makeup on, waiting to get into the clown car.

I bet you most programmers started out hacking. You think you're alone in that, but I'm sure you can find hundreds of people in this newsgroup with 48-hour hack-a-thon or similar kinds of stories. They may have been working with punched cards or with all-text displays, but hacking is hacking. That's why some of the dreaded professional programmers will see your fixation with obscure tricks as nothing more than a phase they've been through themselves.