Ah, that would also explain why there is the IMHO arbitrary restriction that you can only localize global variables, and not lexical ones. Why something like:

{ my $fh;
  sub init_print_log { $fh = shift;}
  sub print_log { print $fh scalar localtime,@_;}
  sub print_log_altfile { local $fh = shift; print_log(@_);}
}
[download]

is illegal, even though the -concept-, if not that particular example, is useful.

UPDATE: Yes, save() would be a better name... better than some of the others that have been suggested. Someone also suggested renaming my() to local(). I hope that one doesn't fly.