The final working version I came up with was:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w -p -i.bak

use strict;

my $kill = join "|", qw{
  wahwah
  blahblah
  yadayada
};

s/$kill//go;          # remove unwanted strings
s/^\s+//g;            # blank lines
[download]

Without the -p option the working version was:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w -i.bak

use strict;

my $kill = join "|", qw{
  wahwah
  blahblah
  yadayada
};

while (<>) 
{
    s/$kill//go;          # remove unwanted strings
    s/^\s+//g;            # blank lines
    print;
}
[download]

I've not used the -p option before, but -p forces printing at the end, while -n explicitly disables printing. -p will override -n, if both are present. 'perldoc perlrun' talks about these.

--Chris

e-mail jcwren