I like the idiom. It took me a moment to grok what was happening with @ARGV, but now I've seen it I won't need to think again. However I'd still tack a comment on it (just a # slurp). The sub on the other hand is needlessly verbose. Why not take the middle road: sub slurp { local (@ARGV, $/) = shift; <> }

Now the sub's name is the comment, and its calls are self documenting.

Putting this in an Idiom::Common among with similar snippets would be nice. :)

Makeshifts last the longest.