sub my_sort_key {
 my $file = lc(shift);
 chomp $file;
 my $the_file =~ s/^the\s+//;
 $the_file;
}

my @files = map { $$_[1] } sort { $$a[0] cmp $$b[0] }
 map { [ my_sort_key($_), $_ ] } <INF>;