The mistake is that very early on, Larry decided to flatten lists by
default.  Hence, if you write this:

	@x = (1, 2, 3, (4, 5));

It automagically turns into (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  Convenient, eh?  Sure it
is.  If you want to be your own father's sister, it's extremely
convenient.  If you want every file in your filesystem to be in the
root directory, it's darnright useful.  It's especially advantageous
if you want to collapse the entire universe into a single electron,
since that's about all you can do with it.

		-- Steve Yegge