I Agree.
However on the flip side if you keep hearing noises that "x is dead" then that is more of wish (from the noise makers) rather than the reality!
how many time have you heard someone saying BSD is not dead!
Do you think the folks working an using (say) OpenBSD care. Compared to Linux OpenBSD is a lot less usable, yet the passionate coders behind it still offered us PF, OpenSSH, OpenBGPD
How popular do you need to be, to be undead?
Perl isn't there yet, but the level of fanaticism with which the proponents claim that it isn't dead yet has definitely been on the rise.
A language that isn't dead attracts new users without such noises. If you say 'x isn't dead' you automatically sow doubt about 'x'. Best to show great examples in 'x' than saying 'x' isn't dead.