advice for perl expert wanting to learn python

[Zeljko Vrba]

Now, why would I like to learn Python: because of IronPython port to CLR.
Perl port to CLR doesn't seem to be coming soon. First Perl6 for Parrot has
to be written, and then other backends..

What's the easiest way of learning python knowing perl? Is there somewhere
a 'how-to' cookbook with parallel examples of frequent idioms in perl and
python?

And most important thing, how does Python deal with database connectivity?
Is there a single API (akin to DBI) for connecting to databases?

How does Python support the following databases:
- Oracle
- Postgres
- MySQL
- SQLServer (maybe using freetds?)
- ODBC connectivity (connecting to MS Access)