Just my 2 cents (ignore if you like), but this is how I did it. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -wn
use strict; 
print((split(' '))[0],"\n") unless($_ =~ /^\s+$/);

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lindex 
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  jason@gost.net, wh@ckz.org
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In reply to Re: Help for awk/regex/newbie by lindex
in thread Help for awk/regex/newbie by cmenser

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