Thank you. I started thinking along these lines when I read BUU's message. Once /s?he/ mentioned it I rembered reading about stringification of hash keys. The problem is that printing a variable that contains a stringified reference yeilds exactly the same thing as printing a variable that contains an actual reference.

I'm actually leaving tomorrow for a short vacation, so I won't be able to try this out for a few days. I had to bet some feedback on my problem before I left, though. Ohterwise I wouldn't stop thinking about it.