The use of &THIRD can lead to problems so it isn't a habit I encourage people to get into. The most common way that I see problems with this are typical constants exported from modules where &THIRD can cause a warning if $_[0] contains a non-numeric string. Yes, part of the reason that such a warning is possible is because the default way of making constants in the XS code of modules doesn't actually make constants like use constant does (and I think that is changing).

Anyway, using & without () is usually a bad idea, so I don't encourage its casual use. See (tye)Re: A question of style for more on why.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")