how best to split into singleton and sequence

[Randy Bush]

>>> l = []
>>> s = 'a|b'
>>> t, l = s.split('|')
>>> t
'a'
>>> l
'b'
>>> s = 'a|b|c|d'
>>> t, l = s.split('|')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ValueError: too many values to unpack
>>> 

so, i imagine what is happening is the lhs, t,l, is really
(t, (l)), i.e. only two items.

so how should i have done this readably and simply?

randy