Re: making a markovian "mad lib"

[trippledubs]

I'll have a go

for (@{$data}) {
    my $key = $_->[0];
    my $last_element = $#{$_};
    my $random = $_->[rand($#{$_}) + 1];
    $vars{$key} =  $random;
}

A more concise way:

%vars = map { $_->[0],$_->[rand($#{$_}) + 1] } @{$data};

You could represent like:

$story = {
      protaganist => [ 'al debaran','narrator','japh','gilligan' ],
      dog => [ 'my pretty pitty' ],
};

or

data/protaganist.txt
al debaran
the narrator
japh

data/trials.txt
adventures
bedraengisse