Um this isn't exactly true... Run this... $_ isn't GLOBAL, it is LOCALized automatically. The inner and outer loops each have their own $_ but the "current" $_ is still in scope in the supbroutine called...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @l=qw( a b 3 d );

foreach (@l) {
    print "$_ = ";
    foreach (@l) {
            print "$_ ";
    }
    print "\n";
}

foreach (@l) {
        icky();
}

sub icky {
    print "$_ = ";
    foreach (@l) {
            print "$_ ";
    }
    print "\n";
}
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You don't need to local($_) inside a foreach loop.

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)