in reply to Passing match regexs as arguments to subroutines

Context strikes again. From perlop:
  
If the /g option is not used, m// in list context returns a list consi +sting of the subexpressions matched by the parentheses in the pattern +, i.e., ($1, $2, $3...). (Note that here $1 etc. are also set, and th +at this differs from Perl 4's behavior.) When there are no parenthese +s in the pattern, the return value is the list (1) for success. With +or without parentheses, an empty list is returned upon failure.
   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print