A. Helpers

(defun chomp (string)
  "Similar  to Perl's chomp(),  although it  returns the  new value  of `STRING'
rather than the number of characters removed, and doesn't modify its argument."
  (string-right-trim #(#\Newline #\Return) string))

(defmacro when-let ((var value) &body body)
  "Evaluate  `VALUE', and  bind  it to  `VAR'.  When `VALUE'  evaluates to  some
non-NIL value, evaluate `BODY' in the same binding scope."
  `(let ((,var ,value)) (when ,var ,@body)))

(defmacro perl-grep (sequence &body predicate-body)
  "Like Perl's grep.  Predicate is a body  of code that can refer to `IT' as the
current element of the list."
  `(remove-if-not #'(lambda (it) ,@predicate-body) ,sequence))

;; The following could be made more efficient by using a faster TEST
;; function if the keys appear to be simpler.
(defun mkhash (&rest keys/values)
  "Utility for making new EQUAL hashes easily, similar to Perl's
built-in funcionality."
  (let ((newhash (make-hash-table :test 'equal ; use EQUAL so strings work as keys
                                  :size (truncate (/ (length keys/values)
                                                     2)))))
    (loop
       for key in keys/values by #'cddr
       for value in (cdr keys/values) by #'cddr
       do (setf (gethash key newhash) value))
    newhash))

;; Section 12.1 has an example usage of this, including how
;; *EXPORT-TAGS* should be formatted.
(defun import-tags (package-designator &rest tags)
  "Helps emulate Perl's EXPORT_TAGS functionality, which has no
equivalent in standard CL."
  (let* ((current-package *package*)
         (*package* (find-package package-designator))
         ;; Otherwise we'll find the *export-tags* from the "calling"
         ;; package.
         (export-tags (symbol-value (find-symbol "*EXPORT-TAGS*" *package*))))
    (dolist (tag tags)
      (import (cadr (assoc tag export-tags))
              current-package))))

;; Like Perl's keys function.
(defun hash-keys (hash)
  (loop for k being the hash-keys of hash collect k))

Common Lisp code makes use of the following for
package/loading: 
(require :PACKAGENAME)

SBCL code makes use of the following for package /
library loading:
(asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :date-calc) ; load the package
(use-package 'date-calc)                ; import the symbols
(load "time.lisp")              ; replace with your location of the pdl library
(use-package 'CyberTiggyr-Time) ; for printing times in various formats

Packages / libraries used include:
http://cybertiggyr.com/gene/pdl/
http://www.cliki.net/asdf
http://www.cliki.net/cl-interpol
http://www.cliki.net/cl-ppcre
http://www.cliki.net/date-calc
http://www.cliki.net/iterate