Considering the title and the number of question marks in the last couple paragraphs, I'd say it's a question. Is it a question about how to do something in Perl -- or, more typically for SoPW, please debug my regex, help me find my variable typo from lack of strict, explain HoH data structures, etc. -- well, no.

I debated posting it as a "Meditation" -- but it didn't seem particuarly enlightening or much of an epiphany. (See Where should I post X?). But maybe it's an epiphany for some.

Ohhhhmmmmm....