\_ [...] I have heard a lot of horror stories about people either
\_ trying to pick up someone else's Perl script and rewriting it (what a
\_ total waste of time) or going back to a script they wrote a while back and
\_ not understanding either what they wanted to do, why they did it the way
\_ they did, or even how the script works.  

This is a documentation issue, not a language issue.  Failing to
adequately document something is a sign of a novice programmer much
more than the choice of language, IMHO.

\_ My best scenario for Perl - the
\_ simpler the task, the simpler the script, the better off you are using
\_ Perl.  Imho, Perl, just like every other tool, has its place.  

Yup.  There's a reason I have a 95/NT/linux triboot... 95/NT are tools
that I occasionally need, and can't get away from *yet*.  Fortunately,
Lokisoft, gnome, staroffice, and wine are working to resolve those for
me.  :-)

David