Can't use string ("") as a subroutine ref while "strict refs" in use at temp line 21.

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

# To test this uncomment these lines and (un)comment BEGIN {}
#my @strings = get_init_strings();
#print "strings: @strings\n";

BEGIN {
{ # begin closure

  my @strings;
  my $get_strings = sub {
    # Trivialized code here for brevity.
    # This actually reads in from a file with lots of error checking.
    return "this", "that", "the", "other";
  };

  # the actual subroutine, the only thing callable outside of the closure
  sub get_init_strings {
    if (!@strings) {                        # only call $get_strings once
      @strings = $get_strings->();
    }
    return @strings;
  }

} # close closure
} # close BEGIN block