diff --git a/src/as/com/threerings/util/Util.as b/src/as/com/threerings/util/Util.as
index e11cf9f99..18c06924f 100644
--- a/src/as/com/threerings/util/Util.as
+++ b/src/as/com/threerings/util/Util.as
@@ -83,6 +83,19 @@ public class Util
         return false;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Compute a hash code for a string. This is pretty expensive, so only compute
+     * it once if that's at all an option. This is the JDK algorithm...
+     */
+    public static function hashCode (str :String) :int
+    {
+        var h :int = 0;
+        for (var i :int = str.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
+            h = int(int(31*h) + str.charCodeAt(i));
+        }
+        return h;
+    }
+
     /**
      * If you call a varargs method by passing it an array, the array
      * will end up being arg 1.