... I found this:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

On TOPS-20, there's two: fortune and cookie. fortune tailors its
greeting based on the time of day. If you call it from logout.cmd, and
it's considerably after business hours, it will say something to the
effect of "hope you get a good night's sleep".

@cookie
The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive.
@fortune
Good morning, JAYJWA ...
People who take cat naps don't usually sleep in a cat's
cradle.

@type <system>logout.cmd
fortune

Under ITS, it's byerun and goes in the login file.

*:print jayjwa login

?
:tctyp scroll
:self
byerun/ -1
:kill
?
*

See Ya Later JAYJWA...
New Course Selections in English Department:
8.096:"DANTE, HELL, FIRE, AND FAULKNER"
8.098:"THROUGH HELL AND HIGH WATER WITH HEMINGWAY, HESSE, HUME, HOBBES,
HUNDIUSM AND OTHERS: A SHORTCUT TO INDIA."
8.045:"BLAKE, SPINOZA, AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PORNOGRAPHY IN FILM AND
LITERATURE"
8.069:"SEX IN WORLD AND AMERICAN LITERATURE"
8.067:"THE ROLE OF WOMEN, BLACKS, AND DRUGS IN SEX AND RELIGION IN WORLD
AND AMERICAN FILM ANDLITERATURE"

NOTE: IT IS NOW POSSIBLE TO GRADUATE AS AN ENGLISH MAJOR AFTER SPENDING
FOUR YEARS IN A DARKENED CLASSROOM WITHOUT BEING EXPOSED FOR EVEN A
MOMENT TO ANY OTHER LIGHT THAN THAT OF A MOVIE PROJECTOR.
NOTE FROM URBAN STUDIES: ENGLISH MAJORS MAY FIND COURSE 3.045, "REALISTIC
PROBLEM LITERATURE OF THE CITY" AS A GOOD COURSE TO TRY.
KA ITS 1652 Console 53 Free. 10:44:27

--
PGP Key ID: 781C A3E2 C6ED 70A6 B356 7AF5 B510 542E D460 5CAE
"The Internet should always be the Wild West!"

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:49:32 -0500, jayjwa wrote:

On TOPS-20, there's two: fortune and cookie. fortune tailors its
greeting based on the time of day. If you call it from logout.cmd,
and it's considerably after business hours, it will say something to
the effect of "hope you get a good night's sleep".

On Debian, I?m looking at the ?fortunes? and ?fortunes-min? packages.
These put 43 separate epigram files in the /usr/share/games/fortunes
directory:

ldo@theon:~> (cd /usr/share/games/fortunes/; ls -l $(ls | grep -v \\.))
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 85327 Sep 23 08:40 art
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5877 Sep 23 08:40 ascii-art
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 237981 Sep 23 08:40 computers
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 245093 Sep 23 08:40 cookie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15615 Sep 23 08:40 debian
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 180268 Sep 23 08:40 definitions
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10749 Sep 23 08:40 disclaimer
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40931 Sep 23 08:40 drugs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39280 Sep 23 08:40 education
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34364 Sep 23 08:40 ethnic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34377 Sep 23 08:40 food
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24516 Sep 23 08:40 fortunes
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7391 Sep 23 08:40 goedel
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42446 Sep 23 08:40 humorists
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28525 Sep 23 08:40 kids
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 87971 Sep 23 08:40 knghtbrd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56657 Sep 23 08:40 law
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58496 Sep 23 08:40 linux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19466 Sep 23 08:40 linuxcookie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53590 Sep 23 08:40 literature
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20423 Sep 23 08:40 love
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9816 Sep 23 08:40 magic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19193 Sep 23 08:40 medicine
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 101843 Sep 23 08:40 men-women
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 48174 Sep 23 08:40 miscellaneous
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11322 Sep 23 08:40 news
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6383 Sep 23 08:40 paradoxum
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 153878 Sep 23 08:40 people
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40182 Sep 23 08:40 perl
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7225 Sep 23 08:40 pets
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 35625 Sep 23 08:40 platitudes
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 114922 Sep 23 08:40 politics
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 401 Sep 23 08:40 pratchett
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20294 Sep 23 08:40 riddles
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 129991 Sep 23 08:40 science
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 233777 Sep 23 08:40 songs-poems
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37317 Sep 23 08:40 sports
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30216 Sep 23 08:40 startrek
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37143 Sep 23 08:40 tao
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1787 Sep 23 08:40 translate-me
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61623 Sep 23 08:40 wisdom
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106981 Sep 23 08:40 work
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38978 Sep 23 08:40 zippy

That ?pratchett? one only has two entries:

He hated being thought of as one of those people that wore stupid
ornamental armour. It was gilt by association.
-- Terry Pratchett, "Night Watch"
%
The Assassin moved quietly from roof to roof until he was well away from
the excitement around the Watch House. His movements could be called
cat-like, except that he did not stop to spray urine up against things.
-- Terry Pratchett, "Night Watch"

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:57:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the audience,
I suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a monopoly over
pretty much the entire US telephone system at the time. Its slogan was
?Reach out and touch someone?.

You may titter politely now ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:57:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the audience,
I suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a monopoly over
pretty much the entire US telephone system at the time. Its slogan was
?Reach out and touch someone?.

I'm not too young and am well aware that Bell Labs was part of AT&T,
but never having been exposed to any AT&T advertising or promotional
material, I was unaware of their slogan. So thanks for that info.

--
Geoff Clare <netnews@gclare.org.uk>

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 23 Feb 2026 in alt.folklore.computers, rbowman wrote:

In Russia, the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat has not led
to socialism, but to the domination of a new bureaucracy over the
proletariat and the whole people.
-- Rudolf Rocker

I've got the feeling the anarchism file is non-standard.

I just went through the bog-standard fortune files on my Fedora box;
the only place proletariat appears is in the pets file:

"Contrary to popular belief, penguins are not the salvation of modern technology. Neither do they throw parties for the urban proletariat."

--
Joe Makowiec
https://makowiec.org/
Email: https://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: https://web.archive.org/web/20070914150106/http://improve-usenet.org/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:44:01 +0000, Geoff Clare wrote:

Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:57:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the audience, I
suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a monopoly over pretty
much the entire US telephone system at the time. Its slogan was ?Reach
out and touch someone?.

I'm not too young and am well aware that Bell Labs was part of AT&T,
but never having been exposed to any AT&T advertising or promotional
material, I was unaware of their slogan. So thanks for that info.

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-and- >touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

And you are older than 60 (which is less than 20% of Americans).


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 24 Feb 2026 in alt.folklore.computers, rbowman wrote:

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-a
nd- touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

That was also the time when the National Basketball Association (NBA)
didn't allow zone defenses, and there was a lot of hand-checking that
went on. It was referred to as the "Ma Bell defense", because you would
"reach out and touch someone".

--
Joe Makowiec
https://makowiec.org/
Email: https://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: https://web.archive.org/web/20070914150106/http://improve-usenet.org/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-24, Joe Makowiec <makowiec@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 24 Feb 2026 in alt.folklore.computers, rbowman wrote:

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-
and-touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

That was also the time when the National Basketball Association (NBA)
didn't allow zone defenses, and there was a lot of hand-checking that
went on. It was referred to as the "Ma Bell defense", because you would "reach out and touch someone".

In this year's Winter Olympics, there was a controversy over
"double touching".

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:

On 2026-02-24, Joe Makowiec <makowiec@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 24 Feb 2026 in alt.folklore.computers, rbowman wrote:

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-
and-touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

That was also the time when the National Basketball Association (NBA)
didn't allow zone defenses, and there was a lot of hand-checking that
went on. It was referred to as the "Ma Bell defense", because you would
"reach out and touch someone".

In this year's Winter Olympics, there was a controversy over "double touching".

...which raised some hair curling screams.

--
Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com
Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur,
omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus.
--Galen

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-and- touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

Then there was "Don't run, just reach".

De

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the audience,
I suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a monopoly over
pretty much the entire US telephone system at the time. Its slogan was
?Reach out and touch someone?.

You may titter politely now ...

1992, IBM had one of the largest losses in the history of US companies
and was being reorganized into the 13 "baby blues" in preparation for
breaking up the company ("baby blues" a take-off on the "baby bells"
breakup a decade earlier) https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
We had already left IBM but get a call from the bowels of Armonk asking
if we could help with the breakup. Before we get started, the board
brings in the former AMEX president as CEO to try and save the company,
who (somewhat) reverses the breakup and uses some of the same techniques
used at RJR (gone 404, but lives on at wayback) https://web.archive.org/web/20181019074906/http://www.ibmemployee.com/RetirementHeist.shtml

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 25 Feb 2026 02:54:04 GMT, Stefan Ram wrote:

Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> wrote or quoted:

1992, IBM had one of the largest losses in the history of US
companies

Yeah, I guess Wang Laboratories went under that year too. And Rear
Admiral Grace Murray Hopper died. Maybe that's why the Queen called
1992 an "annus horribilis".

Hard to say whose annus was more horribilis than hers ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:37:13 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

That ?pratchett? one only has two entries ...

Wouldn?t you know it -- there are a bunch more of his in the ?magic?
file ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 19:58:37 GMT
scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the
audience, I suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a
monopoly over pretty much the entire US telephone system at the
time. Its slogan was ƒ??Reach out and touch someone

ƒ?_.

I'm not too young and am well aware that Bell Labs was part of
AT&T, but never having been exposed to any AT&T advertising or
promotional material, I was unaware of their slogan. So thanks
for that info.

https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-and- >touch-someone-1979-1982

It was hard to miss if you lived in the US.

And you are older than 60 (which is less than 20% of Americans).

I had to have it explained to me as a youngster - "DuckTales" did a
time-travel story where the Bad Future involved Scrooge's business
empire turning into an extortionate monopoly. The jingle for the phone-
company arm was "Reach out and crush someone..." ;)


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

That's the motto for the Barrett .50 cal

And if beating them to death with it fails, maybe just shoot them? :)

De

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-24 14:44, Geoff Clare wrote:

Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:57:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

?Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.?

For those too young to remember (which would be most of the audience,
I suspect), Bell Labs was part of AT&T, which was a monopoly over
pretty much the entire US telephone system at the time. Its slogan was
?Reach out and touch someone?.

I'm not too young and am well aware that Bell Labs was part of AT&T,
but never having been exposed to any AT&T advertising or promotional material, I was unaware of their slogan. So thanks for that info.

Same here. And I was a Lucent employee, one of the Baby Bells, that
owned the labs. But not in the USA.

So thanks for the info. And thanks John for the video.

--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES??, EU??;

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)