> This occurs whether strict is called or not, and it also happens whether "my" is declared on the hash name or not, so keeping the samples simple and omitting that part

No. As mentioned emphatically in the title of On Commenting Out 'use strict;' that is not a good idea. :)

It's also not recommended at How do I post a question effectively? -- which endorses use strict and use warnings, with no mention of omitting them to "keep the samples simple".

See Also

• What are string and numeric contexts? (perlmaven)
• Re: I don't understand string versus numeric context by morgon (2010)
• perldoc perldata - Context
• Scalar::Util's looks_like_number function

Updated: Added See Also section.