Neah.. I think Link3 has the idea. C is much nicer, end of story. And for those who like OOP, there is a book on doing OOP in C.. I might have it but not 100% certain on that part.
Lots of alternatives to Perl, also.
Of course, each language has it's strengths and weaknesses, and what to use can depend on what kind of programming you're doing and what kind of task is necessary. C is great for most things (although some would say mostly system programming, I guess it depends on how you look at it). PERL may be for something else (but it's still a messy language! -- well, that is, at least the look of a perl script).
I wouldn't restrict my programming to C if I had more time.. the real idea is to figure out every language possible, since then you can choose what's best for the specific task and system.
I still prefer C over all the other languages though...
