A friend of mine, during an employment hiatus of his own doing, worked through a copy of Perl in 21 Days. He had a good programming background in other languages to start, but said that was a good book for him. Your mileage may vary.

That said, as others have said, there are wonderful tutorials here and wonderful people here who have assisted many, including me, in times of "bang head here over problem".

One book I can heartily recommend is Coriolis's Perl Black Book. Great reference for when you can't remember that niggling little syntax detail.

As far as comparing child rearing and Perl, I can tell you that Perl is easier than getting a cat to do what you say. :)

Good luck!

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling now.

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