Sorry, I should have remembered the semi-colon. That is the kind of detail I stopped thinking about, they just automatically go in when I write, and if I edit then run I expect to have Perl catch.

You are right about why you need it. In the language used in perlsyn, the subroutine is now within a "simple statement" and you need to terminate the statement.

As for writing Perl like that, I do it all of the time and recommend it whenever I get the chance. :-)