Agh! trim (#$@#@^%!!!)

Hey! :) I have an issue with trim / triml. Whenever I put a string in to trimmed, it refuses to take the period at the end of the string off. I did put more things to trim first, but this is basically what I am doing: $single = "The date is 20-Aug-2002." // This is an example - see below $trimmed = rtrim($date, "."); Is there an issue with this? I've tried using trim() too. The source of $single is a reponse from a server. I should note that when I put this in as an experiment, it works fine. When I get the line from the server, it doesn't work! The only thing I can think of is the possibility that the "." I am seeing at the end of the line isn't really one (it looks like a duck, copies like a duck, but...isn't a duck??!!). Is there a way to just strip the last character off regardless of what it is? Thanks, -Mike