diff --git a/lib/permalink_fu.rb b/lib/permalink_fu.rb
index 06b35f0..1733a80 100644
--- a/lib/permalink_fu.rb
+++ b/lib/permalink_fu.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 module PermalinkFu
 
   def self.escape(str)
-    s = ActiveSupport::Multibyte::Handlers::UTF8Handler.normalize(str.to_s, :kd)
+    s = str.mb_chars.downcase.strip.normalize(:kd)
     s.gsub!(/[^\w -]+/n, '')  # strip unwanted characters
     s.strip! # ohh la la
     s.downcase!