You are absolutely correct. ...it's a concept I understand but have difficulty expressing clearly, especially in a layman vocabulary. Good job with the linguistic deobfuscation. ;)

I might add, the referent needn't be a hash, a simple scalar, nor an array. It could also be a file handle, a regexp, and even a sub, though I've never figured out a useful purpose to blessing a sub. Now I'm sure someone will follow-up with a brilliant use of this technique. *grin*