You can do it like this:

     < foo.txt bar | blah > out.log

Hey, TIL.

I like that more, in a way, and less, in a way. The angle bracket is pointing off into nothing but throws `foo.txt` into `bar` anyway, so the control flow seems more messed up than in `bar < foo.txt`.

On the other hand it's structurally a bit more useful, because I can insert a different first stage very easily. But I still can't add a filename or change it to a glob, so cat is still more flexible.

So I'm going to stick to my trivial-catting ways, but thanks for the head's up.