cut(1) and space delimiters

[Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net>]

Googled and followed examples, which work, but my specific problem 
doesn't work...

WORKS:
$ service="http mail ssh"
$ echo $service | cut -d\  -f2
mail
$ echo $service | cut -d' ' -f2
mail
dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall$ | awk '{print $1}'


DOES NOT WORK:
$ dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall$ | cut -d' ' -f1
$ dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall$ | cut -d\  -f1


Is the problem that there's so *much* whitespace in the dpkg listing?

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to moral, physical and intellectual progress.