No, you aren't. Thus the reason that your a-z0-9 works fine. As a contribution to the thread: 
# cat match.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -l

while (<DATA>) {
   chomp;
   print "$_ " . (/[^a-z0-9!\@#\$%^&*(),.?~:;<>+ =_'"-]/ ? "contains w
+eird stuff":"is fine");
}

__DATA__
funky town
^-^
b*
f1
top`
# perl match.pl
funky town is fine
^-^ is fine
b* is fine
f1 is fine
top` contains weird stuff
#

[download]

In reply to Re^5: Regex for weird characters by !1
in thread Regex for weird characters by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.