The Perl Cookbook by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington has a 5-page write-up on "Fetching a URL from a Perl Script" using the "Use LWP::Simple; $content = get ($URL);" syntax you discuss.

This O'Reilly book might be worth a look if you have it around. I have always gotten the impression that author Tom Christiansen along with Randal Schwartz and Larry Wall are the trinity of holy Perl worship and are each worthy of reverence from humble initiates.