To redeem myself slightly I will explain that local $/; is better because at the end of the code block (pretty much anything in curly braces) $/ will return to it's previous value, thus preventing you from mysteriously jinxing other subroutines.

It doesn't matter in one liners but if you read from two files $/ applies to both - so changing it changes both file handles.

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Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.