title: Trying to parse JSON in Python. ValueError: Expecting property name
body: <p>I am trying to parse a JSON object into a Python <code>dict</code>. I've never done this before. When I googled this particular error, (<em>What is wrong with the first char?</em>), other posts have said that the string being loaded is not actually a JSON string.  I'm pretty sure this is, though.</p>
  
  <p>In this case, <code>eval()</code> works fine, but I'm wondering if there is a more appropriate way?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Note:</strong> This string comes directly from Twitter, via ptt tools.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; import json
  &gt;&gt;&gt; line = '{u\'follow_request_sent\': False, u\'profile_use_background_image\': True,
           u\'default_profile_image\': False, 
           u\'verified\': False, u\'profile_sidebar_fill_color\': u\'DDEEF6\',
           u\'profile_text_color\': u\'333333\', u\'listed_count\': 0}'
  &gt;&gt;&gt; json.loads(line)
  
  Traceback (most recent call last):
       File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
       File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 326, in loads
         return _default_decoder.decode(s)
       File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 366, in decode
         obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
       File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 382, in raw_decode
         obj, end = self.scan_once(s, idx)
     ValueError: Expecting property name: line 1 column 1 (char 1)
  </code></pre>