$ perl -le'sub x { \*STDOUT }; print x() "blah"' String found where operator expected at -e line 1, near ") "blah"" (Missing operator before "blah"?) syntax error at -e line 1, near ") "blah"" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. $ perl -le'sub x { \*STDOUT }; print { x() } "blah"' blah