In response to all this lively discourse, the problem continues in spite of a suitably scoped my @pileofinchis array. However, I have now found at least one problem which was indeed a scoping issue with an array.
use strict scares me :( Thanks for your assistance

In reply to Re^2: Ghostly subroutine variables haunting me in subsequent calls by moonunit
in thread Ghostly subroutine variables haunting me in subsequent calls by moonunit

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