diff --git a/IkiWiki.pm b/IkiWiki.pm
index e4765219e..64ef6585f 100644
--- a/IkiWiki.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki.pm
@@ -471,7 +471,9 @@ sub loadplugins () { #{{{
 		unshift @INC, possibly_foolish_untaint($config{libdir});
 	}
 
-	loadplugin($_) foreach @{$config{default_plugins}}, @{$config{add_plugins}};
+	foreach my $plugin (@{$config{default_plugins}}, @{$config{add_plugins}}) {
+		loadplugin($plugin);
+	}
 	
 	if ($config{rcs}) {
 		if (exists $IkiWiki::hooks{rcs}) {
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c6fa4261c..46c40bf5e 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ ikiwiki (2.63) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Typo. Closes: #497003
   * Ignore failure to install files into /etc, in case install is running as
     non-root.
+  * Work around perl $_ scoping nonsense that caused breakage when loading
+    external plugins.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:08:18 -0400
 
diff --git a/doc/bugs/methodResponse_in_add__95__plugins.mdwn b/doc/bugs/methodResponse_in_add__95__plugins.mdwn
index 64a919cec..8a88f4eda 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/methodResponse_in_add__95__plugins.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/methodResponse_in_add__95__plugins.mdwn
@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@
 
 **patch comment:** solves the problem on 2.61. as these are the first lines of perl i've knowingly written, i can not explain what exactly was happening there.
 
+> Perl's `$_` handling is the worst wart on it, or possibly any language.
+> Here it's an alias to the actual value in the array, and when deep
+> in the external plugin load code something resets `$_` to a different
+> value, the alias remains and it changes the value at a distance.
+> 
+> Thanks for the excellent problem report, [[fixed|done]]. --[[Joey]]
+
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     diff --git a/IkiWiki.pm b/IkiWiki.pm
     index e476521..d43abd4 100644