I'd noticed the article you're talking about a while back when I was first planning this system, but the mod_perl's unfortunately out of the question here. The webserver is pretty heavily loaded as things are =)

Thanks again to all who replied!

Peevish Update To those -- ing: this is a situation not of my making, nor is it in my power to change. I fully realize the benefits of mod_perl, but the scripts I'm writing are among the few Perl scripts actually running on this server. Mostly it's other kinds of content. The web server i's proper functioning is critical, so I understand the reluctance to add any module as complex as mod_perl to it.

Philosophy can be made out of anything -- or less