Hmmm...
The first read of STDIN was supposed to slurp up all the data,
and if the second read doesn't occur the script works fine
and behaves as it should. The idea was that I then add a new
line to STDIN typing on the console for the second read. I
wonder if the second read is going back to the beginning of the
original input and processing it again? I don't know how this
explains the way that $answer appears to be decidedly undef, though...
Update: :-) Unfortunately, I've tried both <> and <STDIN>,
and both give the same result.