k or empty list
               is considered to contain a single, empty item.  Leading
               and trailing blanks in list are ignored.
  
   delims      contains the individual characters which delimit
               the items in the list. These may be any ASCII
               characters, including blanks.

               However, by definition, consecutive blanks are NOT
               considered to be consecutive delimiters. Nor are
               a blank and any other delimiter considered to be
 