Maybe it is the pattern matching aspect that is throwing you for a loop? Are you familiar with Prolog, Mathematica, Erlang, or syntax-case macros from Scheme?

Maybe it is the pattern matching aspect that is throwing you for a loop? Are you familiar with Prolog, Mathematica, Erlang, or syntax-case macros from Scheme? Or is the the dollar sign ($), or something else that may be bugging you? Maybe post a simple example of one of the worst offenders.