Nice post.

I think maybe the only problem with this is that it's not an idiom yet. The thing about idioms IMHO is that it matters less whether they're readable because you just recognise it and say "oh this is that idiom" and move on. That takes time because people have to start using the idiom. I guess as with every other new idea, you need some early adopters. :)

But that shouldn't be a problem for long; I will always know what that piece of code means when I see it now.

I too get tired of coding up little slurps all the time (generally using local $/). I presume I can use this for any handle and not just ARGV?