you can't forget the first, you can forget the last though.
If you want to forget the function must work differently like blah($array)
& means you send the data as reference (pointer), If you don't use & the data gets copied.
Code:
<?php
function blah($var) {
$var = 'no reference';
}
function ref(@$var) {
$var = 'reference';
}
$a_var = 'a string';
blah($a_var);
echo $a_var;
ref($a_var);
echo $a_var;
this will output: