Given something that closely resembles a dictionary, we attempt
    to coerce it into a propery dictionary.

def to_dict(dictish):
    """
    Given something that closely resembles a dictionary, we attempt
    to coerce it into a propery dictionary.
    """
    if hasattr(dictish, 'iterkeys'):
        m = dictish.iterkeys
    elif hasattr(dictish, 'keys'):
        m = dictish.keys
    else:
        raise ValueError(dictish)

    return dict((k, dictish[k]) for k in m())