Since I love talking to myself :-) ...

>I'm guessing that #to_a returns an ASCII representation of the object.

No, you fool!  It turns the object into an array.  So, it's  PRECISELY
what is required for this.

I keep forgetting that the library reference is available on-line.

By the way, Dave, I assume the reason you don't have a downloadable
version of the library reference's HTML is that it's copyrighted by
the publisher, being part of your book?

Sad. It would be an excellent resource to stick on my laptop.  My
memory is like a sieve!