title: Bash script display results in a specific order or sequence
body: <p>I've tried various solutions via sed awk and array manipulation ((in bash)), but have not found a solid way to make the following happen:  </p>
  
  <p>Let's say I have a file named <code>states.txt</code> containing:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Alabama
  Alaska
  Arizona
  Arkansas
  California
  Colorado
  
  and so-on and so forth
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to cat <code>states.txt</code> and have the result be the first and second state, then the second and third state, then third and fourth, etc.</p>
  
  <p>I also want to ignore the fact that the states are in alphabetical order (the actual file contents I am going for are not in such order).</p>
  
  <p>The result should look like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Alabama
  Alaska
  
  then
  
  Alaska
  Arizona
  
  then
  
  Arizona
  Arkansas
  
  then
  
  Arkansas
  California
  
  then
  
  California
  Colorado
  
  and so-on and so forth
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thank you for your time and patience on this one.  I appreciate any help offered.</p>