Perhaps a file from another OS with line endings that do not match the local machine's expectations?

Well it won't make sense and I still don't understand it but I came across files that behaved as though they had multiple \n hidden on the same line. If that is even possible? I figured it out when I read a line, chomped it, but still had three blank lines between in and the next line with text. However, if I were to chomp the string(line) again, I only had two blank lines between the first line with text and the next line with text. I wish I remembered what it was but I could have sworn I used a text editor some time in the past that allowed you to see \c \t \n etc etc. Would have been helpful.

Okay. So is it that we are not sure that the mysterious '\n' were really '\n'? If you didn't view them in text editors, there's every chance they were '\n' in fact. Anyway, do update when you come across such a situation again :)