Simple CSV Data Wrangling with Python

I wanted to write a quick post today about a task that most of us do routinely but often think very little about - loading CSV (comma-separated value) data into Python. This simple action has a variety of obstacles that need to be overcome due to the nature of serialization and data transfer. In fact, I'm routinely surprised how often I have to jump through hoops to deal with this type of data, when it feels like it should be as easy as JSON or other serialization formats.

The basic proble...