diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 503429fc..fd2da597 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ NEWS ( CHANGELOG and HISTORY )                                     HTMLPurifier
 
 1.7.0, unknown release date
 
+1.6.1, unknown release date
+! DirectLex now preserves text in which a < bracket is followed by
+  a non-alphanumeric character. This means that certain emoticons
+  are now preserved.
+
 1.6.0, released 2007-04-01
 ! Support for most common deprecated attributes via transformations:
   + bgcolor in td, th, tr and table
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer/DirectLex.php b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer/DirectLex.php
index 65d95a7c..57d116a4 100644
--- a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer/DirectLex.php
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer/DirectLex.php
@@ -110,6 +110,23 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Lexer_DirectLex extends HTMLPurifier_Lexer
                     continue;
                 }
                 
+                // Check leading character is alnum, if not, we may
+                // have accidently grabbed an emoticon. Translate into
+                // text and go our merry way
+                if (!ctype_alnum($segment[0])) {
+                    $array[] = new
+                        HTMLPurifier_Token_Text(
+                            '<' .
+                            $this->parseData(
+                                $segment
+                            ) . 
+                            '>'
+                        );
+                    $cursor = $position_next_gt + 1;
+                    $inside_tag = false;
+                    continue;
+                }
+                
                 // Check if it is explicitly self closing, if so, remove
                 // trailing slash. Remember, we could have a tag like <br>, so
                 // any later token processing scripts must convert improperly
diff --git a/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php b/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
index 3e627dab..c0da5b2a 100644
--- a/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
+++ b/tests/HTMLPurifier/LexerTest.php
@@ -281,6 +281,18 @@ class HTMLPurifier_LexerTest extends UnitTestCase
         $input[18] = '<br test="x &lt; 6" />';
         $expect[18] = array( new HTMLPurifier_Token_Empty('br', array('test' => 'x < 6')) );
         
+        // test emoticon protection
+        $input[19] = '<b>Whoa! >.< That\'s not good >.></b>';
+        $expect[19] = array(
+            new HTMLPurifier_Token_Start('b'),
+            new HTMLPurifier_Token_Text('Whoa! >.'),
+            new HTMLPurifier_Token_Text('< That\'s not good >'),
+            new HTMLPurifier_Token_Text('.>'),
+            new HTMLPurifier_Token_End('b'),
+        );
+        $sax_expect[19] = false; // SAX drops the < character
+        $dom_expect[19] = false; // DOM drops the entire pseudo-tag
+        
         $default_config = HTMLPurifier_Config::createDefault();
         $default_context = new HTMLPurifier_Context();
         foreach($input as $i => $discard) {