diff --git a/src/brain.coffee b/src/brain.coffee
index d7110cf..1dadcb9 100644
--- a/src/brain.coffee
+++ b/src/brain.coffee
@@ -398,7 +398,9 @@ class Brain
     else
       # For everything else, strip all non-alphanumerics
       msg = utils.stripNasties(msg, @utf8)
-
+    
+    # cut leading and trailing blanks once punctuation dropped office
+    msg = msg.trim()
     return msg
 
   ##