def read_picard(file, threshold=20):
    """ Read the picard file which is an ascii table of quality scores per base.
    
    Args:
        file (string): The path to the picard file.
        
    Requires:
        None
        
    Returns:
        (list): A list of tuples of base / quality score. 
        (bool): True if any quality score in the set does not meet the threshold.
    """
    
    with open(file) as file_handle:
        picard_lines = file_handle.readlines()
        
    # read through file to get quality scores ignoring all lines with comments/headers
    data=[]
    below_threshold=False
    for line in picard_lines:
        if not (line.startswith("#") or line.startswith("CYCLE")):
            new_data=line.rstrip().split("\t")
            # check if the quality score passes the threshold
            try:
                new_data=(int(new_data[0]),float(new_data[1]))
                if new_data[1] < threshold:
                    below_threshold=True
                data.append(new_data)
            except ValueError:
                pass
        
    return data, below_threshold