line eater, the

line eater, the n.  [Usenet] 1. A bug in some now-obsolete
   versions of the netnews software that used to eat up to BUFSIZ
   bytes of the article text.  The bug was triggered by having the
   text of the article start with a space or tab.  This bug was
   quickly personified as a mythical creature called the `line
   eater', and postings often included a dummy line of `line eater
   food'.  Ironically, line eater `food' not beginning with a space
   or tab wasn't actually eaten, since the bug was avoided; but if
   there *was* a space or tab before it, then the line eater
   would eat the food *and* the beginning of the text it was
   supposed to be protecting.  The practice of `sacrificing to the
   line eater' continued for some time after the bug had been
   {nailed to the wall}, and is still humorously referred to.  The
   bug itself is still (in mid-1991) occasionally reported to be
   lurking in some mail-to-netnews gateways.  2. See {NSA line
   eater}.