{ echo; cat ...; echo; } | whatever


##</code><code>##

# an example of healthy competition for stdin
while read header
do
     dd ...
done

##</code><code>##

% stephan@labaule (/home/stephan) %
% $0 --version; cat -n hi1                  
  version         sh (AT&T Labs Research) 1993-12-28 r
     1  just
     2  another
     3  ksh
     4  hacker

% stephan@labaule (/home/stephan) %
% while < hi1; do print -n $1' '; done; echo
just another ksh hacker