I stumbled upon the following strangeness (python 2.6.2): >>> getattr(int, '__gt__') <method-wrapper '__gt__' of type object at 0x822b7c0> >>> getattr(5, '__gt__') Traceback (most recent call last):n File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute '__gt__' Is this a bug ? George