$sth=$dbh->prepare(q{SELECT this FROM that WHERE
foo=?});
$sth->execute($findthis);
($returnme) = $sth->fetchrow_array(); ##

##


$findthis = "find me";

my $query = "SELECT this FROM that WHERE foo='$findthis'";

$sth=$dbh->prepare{$query);

...

doesn't work.  it prints SELECT this FROM that WHERE foo='find me' 

I tried using sqlplus to throw queries directly at the db... and doing just

SELECT this FROM that WHERE foo='find me';