my %hash = {
   'node_id'      => '1',
   'node_title'   => 'whiskey',
   'node_author'  => 'otis',
   'node_content' => 'the path to wisdom is littered with empty bottle
+s',
};
[download]

This is a hashref, not a hash. I'm curious as to why you didn't get an error on this before the one on line 16. under activestate 5.6.1 build 631, once this is corrected (change braces to parens), it outputs

$VAR1 = 'the path to wisdom is littered with empty bottles';
[download]

update :

my %hash = (
   'node_id'      => '1',
   'node_title'   => 'whiskey',
   'node_author'  => 'otis',
   'node_content' => 'the path to wisdom is littered with empty bottle
+s',
);
[download]

This is a hash, see the parens? like my %hash=(), but a hashref uses braces : my $href={}