FWIW, I still call myself an apprentice, as I still don't feel I've truly mastered Perl.

Minor point of posting style...

When specifying links to other nodes, use the PM-link tag: [id://11123691|first post]

Here, you used the anchor element (<a>): <a href=”https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=11123691>first post</a>

This causes problems for folks using one of the other domains the site is associated with (e.g. perlmonks.com, perlmonks.org, etc).

To learn more, see How do I link to a node on this site by number? and PerlMonks FAQ

Not a huge deal, but one that really helps keep the cookies straight.

--f