my $fred = "foo";
for (my $idx = 1; $idx <= 10; $idx++) {

#Changed this line to my
    my $fred = "blah";
#
    $fred = $fred x $idx;
    print $fred, "\n" # foo, foofoo, foofoofoo...
}
print $fred, "\n"; # foo
[download]

Outputs:

./test.pl
blah

blahblah

blahblahblah

blahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

foo
[download]

So it looks like my will at least hide the value of the outer scope's version of $fred. More confusion, I have not read the links below yet.....

Thanks!