original: [241] 'I need to extract the first several words from a paragraph of text 
contained in a $var, so as to get the longest extract that's less than or 
equal to 200 characters. My brute-force-and-ignorance method is: blah 
some more text here etc etc'

japhy: [66] 'I need to extract the first several words from a paragraph of text'

george: [241] 'I need to extract the first several words from a paragraph of text 
contained in a $var, so as to get the longest extract that's less than or 
equal to 200 characters. My brute-force-and-ignorance method is: blah 
some more text here etc etc'

gav^: [194] 'I need to extract the first several words from a paragraph of text contained in a $var, so as to get the longest extract that's less than or equal to 200 characters. My brute-force-and-ignorance'

Hofmator: [53] 'equal to 200 characters. My brute-force-and-ignorance'