#!C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -w 

use strict;	# I'm a masochist

my $file = shift || 'foo.txt';	# why not
my @lines;

open(SESAME, $file) || die "Cannot open $file: $!";	# save debugging time
while (<SESAME>) {
	chomp;
	next unless $_;
	push @lines, $_;	
}
close(SESAME) || die "Cannot close $file: $!";
my $total = @lines;
print "There are $total records in $file\n";

##</code><code>##

{
	local *SESAME;		# localizing a filehandle saves debugging time too
	open (SESAME, $file) || die "Foo: $!";
	local $/ = "\n\n";	# "line" delimiter is now two newlines
	@lines = <SESAME>;
	close (SESAME) || die "Bar: $!";
}