I've always been partial to the method in the magenta Camel:

$dir = "/home/angryman/www/content/m/i/2000/5/31/r_standoff.gif";
($dir =~ /content(.*)/) && ($after = $1);
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It is, of course especially clean when you are looping:

while (<>) {
    (/foo(.*)/) && ($foo = $1);
}
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