Thanks to all who answered. I knew that I was close,
but that only counts in horseshoes I guess. I also
got some good alternative coding suggestions from some
of you, too, so again, my thanks and appreciation to
all of you for helping out a newbie here. Now I just
need to sit down and start reading the perldocs for
fun - might help me to remember something next time
I get one of these little gems of a problem. ;-)