function maybe_unserialize( $original ) {
    if ( is_serialized( $original ) ){ // don't attempt to unserialize data that wasn't serialized going in
        $fixed = preg_replace_callback(
            '!(?<=^|;)s:(\d+)(?=:"(.*?)";(?:}|a:|s:|b:|i:|o:|N;))!s',
            'serialize_fix_callback',
            $original );
        // HACK HACK
        if ($original != $fixed) {
            $myfile = "/home/user/www/was.log";
            $fh = fopen($myfile, 'a');
            fwrite($fh, "Not legal serializable data. Was\n\t$original\nbut should be\n\t$fixed");
            fclose($fh);
        }
        return @unserialize( $original );
    }
    return $original;
}