Tedrek,

There is a reason: the file is frequently updated by other developers. Those developers are only concerned with adding items to each of the hashes within %some_hash. In other words, they are concerned with adding more birds to MASSACHUSETTS (quite a bunch of pro-environment developers here ;-) ). However, it is useful (IMHO) for us to be able to see which birds are associated with which states (names of keys/values have been changed to protect the innocent--the "birds" are actually user IDs and the "states" are various functions... long story).

However, your idea to put the values in a separate module is excellent, and I will likely do just that (see my above reply).

Cheers,

AH