--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/flatten_lines.py	Thu Feb 11 09:08:22 2010 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+import doctest
+def flatten(texts):
+    '''
+    >>> flatten([['cow', 'cat'], '', 'fish', ['bird']])
+    ['cow', 'cat', 'fish', 'bird']
+    '''
+    result = []
+    if isinstance(texts, basestring):
+        result.extend(texts.splitlines())
+    else:
+        for text in texts:
+            result.extend(flatten(text))
+    result = [r.strip() for r in result if r.strip()]
+    return result
+doctest.testmod()