Re: my Dog $spot;

[perrin]

I remember Damian Conway had a whole spiel about why this syntax was bad and shouldn't be used. With pseudo-hashes now removed, I think this is just a leftover from a failed idea.

[Zaxo]

I can't comment on Damian's spiel; I've never heard it. I'd appreciate a link if he's published it somewhere.

I think you're right about leftovers, and that's encouraging. An empty niche in the lexer ecology is just begging to be filled. It wouldn't be there if it interfered too much with vanilla my declarations (per xdg's second objection, above).