well, the abs() call is only there for the case of -1 -- you can take it out to compare against your case, or put some other check in to your case such that -1 == $count behaves the same as 1 == $count. otherwise you're comparing apples & oranges.

also, my snippet used two interpolations where yours reduced it to one ($noun versus the constant iteration) which doesn't make a huge difference, but again, them citrus fruits... time for me to run home. if you haven't rebenched, I'll set one up that's as parallel as possible except for x vs. ?:

ps: I don't know how the x operator is implemented, which is why i said "theoretically" faster -- as far as i can tell, there is no need for it to include a branch.

UP-dilly-DATE : OK, i didn't do it last night, but I did it. I made this small change:

sub sub1() {
    for my $count (0..2) {
        my $declension = 's' x ($count != 1);
        my $result = sprintf "$count iteration$declension so far...\n"
+;
    }
}
[download]

and got ... actually, quite similar results:

timethis 2000000: 52 wallclock secs (26.95 usr +  0.39 sys = 27.34 CPU
+) @ 73152.89/s (n=2000000)
timethis 2000000: 38 wallclock secs (25.47 usr +  0.34 sys = 25.81 CPU
+) @ 77489.35/s (n=2000000)
[download]

Which is interesting, to me.