diff --git a/lib/action.php b/lib/action.php
index 0419828b3a..8d0fb2634a 100644
--- a/lib/action.php
+++ b/lib/action.php
@@ -116,8 +116,8 @@ class Action extends HTMLOutputter // lawsuit
         foreach (array(6,7) as $ver) {
             if (file_exists(theme_file('ie'.$ver.'.css'))) {
                 // Yes, IE people should be put in jail.
-                $xw->writeComment('[if lte IE '.$ver.']><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" '.
-                                  'href="'.theme_path('ie'.$ver.'.css').'?version='.LACONICA_VERSION.'" /><![endif]');
+                $this->comment('[if lte IE '.$ver.']><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" '.
+                               'href="'.theme_path('ie'.$ver.'.css').'?version='.LACONICA_VERSION.'" /><![endif]');
             }
         }
     }
@@ -556,7 +556,6 @@ class Action extends HTMLOutputter // lawsuit
         $this->elementStart('div', array('id' => 'content'));
     }
 
-
     // Added @id to li for some control. We might want to move this to htmloutputter.php
     function common_menu_item($id=null, $url, $text, $title=null, $is_selected=false)
     {
diff --git a/lib/xmloutputter.php b/lib/xmloutputter.php
index 5bbd35627e..9ca0c91bd6 100644
--- a/lib/xmloutputter.php
+++ b/lib/xmloutputter.php
@@ -226,4 +226,17 @@ class XMLOutputter
     {
         $this->xw->writeRaw($xml);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * output a comment
+     *
+     * @param string $txt text of the comment
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+
+    function comment($txt)
+    {
+        $this->xw->writeComment($txt);
+    }
 }