diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
index de1ace7929..1350e8e22a 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class AbstractDownloadStrategy
   end
 
   def quiet_safe_system *args
-    safe_system *expand_safe_system_args(args)
+    safe_system(*expand_safe_system_args(args))
   end
 end
 
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ class SubversionDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
     args = _fetch_command svncommand, url, target
     args << '-r' << revision if revision
     args << '--ignore-externals' if ignore_externals
-    quiet_safe_system *args
+    quiet_safe_system(*args)
   end
 
   # Try HOMEBREW_SVN, a Homebrew-built svn, and finally the OS X system svn.
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
index 3df0d29f1d..f2246c7a50 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
@@ -496,8 +496,9 @@ EOF
     return if patch_list.empty?
 
     ohai "Downloading patches"
-    # downloading all at once is much more efficient, espeically for FTP
-    curl *(patch_list.collect{|p| p[:curl_args]}.select{|p| p}.flatten)
+    # downloading all at once is much more efficient, especially for FTP
+    patches = patch_list.collect{|p| p[:curl_args]}.select{|p| p}.flatten
+    curl(*patches)
 
     ohai "Patching"
     patch_list.each do |p|
@@ -543,7 +544,7 @@ EOF
 
     attr_rw :version, :homepage, :specs, :deps, :external_deps
     attr_rw :keg_only_reason, :skip_clean_all
-    attr_rw *CHECKSUM_TYPES
+    attr_rw(*CHECKSUM_TYPES)
 
     def head val=nil, specs=nil
       return @head if val.nil?
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
index 24846d6b19..e2eb9cb3e2 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def exec_editor *args
   # we split the editor because especially on mac "mate -w" is common
   # but we still want to use the comma-delimited version of exec because then
   # we don't have to escape args, and escaping 100% is tricky
-  exec *(editor.split+args)
+  exec(*(editor.split+args))
 end
 
 # GZips the given path, and returns the gzipped file
diff --git a/bin/brew b/bin/brew
index 07f6166ce2..4ec64f0a18 100755
--- a/bin/brew
+++ b/bin/brew
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ begin
             path
           end
         end
-        exec_editor *paths
+        exec_editor(*paths)
       end
 
   when 'up', 'update'
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ begin
       elsif ARGV.named.empty?
         raise UsageError
       else
-        exec_editor *ARGV.named.collect {|name| make name}
+        exec_editor(*ARGV.named.collect {|name| make name})
       end
 
     when 'diy', 'configure'