For Pete's sake...I never would have suspected that because it seemed to be stomping on memory. I've dealt with these different line endings before, but never ran into that behavior.

Thanks a ton for everyone who helped. I have to mention that this has been the most pleasant forum I've ever worked with. Thanks!

By the way, I'm using tchomp (http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/htdocs/Text-Chomp/Text/Chomp.pm.html) to solve the problem. Do you see any reason not to always use tchomp in place of chomp?