Are they, perchance, more like guidelines?

I am sad that I can no longer read your articles, as an interested amateur.

If only he'd missed that shot.

I wrote some code in a weird Smalltalk-alike language that decided C syntax was better, around 38 years ago.
It was awesome, incredibly productive.
Sadly the ~256k PCs of the day couldn't really hack it.

For some reason I am reminded of the baffling conversation I once had with a KGB officer in Siberia who was convinced that Thought for the Day had to be coded instructions for Western intelligence agents.

“Otherwise it would just be nonsense and the BBC would not broadcast nonsense!”

Douane

Spare a thought, perhaps, for his wife.

I fear you may have lost your marbles.

Did you go on the tramway?