Recurring patterns: Am I missing it, or can we get these added to the language?

[David]

>  Today I found myself once again defining two functions that I use all
>  the time: nsplit and iterable.  These little helper functions of mine
>  get used all the time when I work. Im sick of having to define them
>  (but am very good at it these days, less than 1 typo per function!).
>  It leads me to the following questions

How about creating an erichtools module?