use strict; my $i_get_it_now; sub grateful { my $phrase_of_gratitude = qq/ Monks, I'm blown away by the quality of these answers. Thanks very much, I understand now--and I can sleep better. If only there was a perlmonks.org for every other aspect of life... Thanks, Kurt /; $i_get_it_now=\$phrase_of_gratitude; } grateful(); print $$i_get_it_now;