If anyone has a brilliant idea for a shorter keyword than default, I hope they'll send it in.

Not shorter, but I think it's easier to read and a lot better:

given $foo {
 when 1 { ... }
 when 2 { ... }
 when we have tried all other options and
      really have nothing left but this last resort { ... }
}
[download]

:)

2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas'
Segmentation fault
2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$
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