Hm. I'm not sure that your justification stands up to scrutiny, but if you must, how about: 

my $utfData = "\x...";
open UTF, '<:encoding(utf8)', \$utfData or die 'Must be pre-5,8';
die 'Bad stuff happened' unless <UTF> eq 'Whatever you expect';

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re^3: an ever-available file for opening by BrowserUk
in thread an ever-available file for opening by Sixtease

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