What magic is this?

Jonathan has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have two scripts that use XML::Simple to parse a small file. The XML::Simple code is identical for both, ie

  # Create XML reader object
  my $xs = new XML::Simple();

  # Parse XML string
  my $ref = $xs->XMLin($file_str);
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With an identical XML string the first script runs without complaint. The second also runs but I have a message in my log file

Thu Oct 26 12:47:37 2006 [PID 23309] [critical] Can't use string ("<sa
+:model xmlns:sa="urn:basel-rb") as a symbol ref while "strict refs" i
+n use at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/XML/Parser
+/Expat.pm line 451.
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The only difference between the two routines is that in the one that reports the problem I've added my own error reporting overrides

    $SIG{__WARN__} = \&log_warn;
    $SIG{__DIE__}  = \&log_die;
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Can anyone offer me some enlightenment on whats going on?

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