and does it run under 'strict'?

It would run under use strict, if you declare the variables, e.g.

my ($apple, $pear, $orange);        # lexicals

# or

our ($apple, $pear, $orange);       # lexically scoped package variabl
+es

# or

use vars qw($apple $pear $orange);  # global package variables
[download]

what might be a 'good' place to use this?

There are almost certainly better ways to approach virtually any typical problem you might have... :)