So if you write something like: *color = *other; does *other go in the GLOB slot?

There's no "GLOB" slot really. When perl encounters such expression, it goes to symbols table and makes sure that "color" and "other" reference the same set of slots.

It sounds like what people are saying is that perl treats the syntax here: *{"color"} = ... differently than the rvalue syntax here: @arr = @{"color"};

Yes. But the difference is not between lvalue and rvalue usage. The difference is in the fact that '*' provides access to all of the slots and the '$', '&', '@' provide access to specific slot. Yet, the syntax *xxx{THING} again accesses specific slots. So, really, all you need to understand is the fact that '*' references all of the slots as the whole.