diff --git a/bootstrap.css b/bootstrap.css
index ac267a0284..91216cc32d 100644
--- a/bootstrap.css
+++ b/bootstrap.css
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
  * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  *
  * Designed and built with all the love in the world @twitter by @mdo and @fat.
- * Date: Sat Nov  5 17:07:48 PDT 2011
+ * Date: Sat Nov 12 20:22:29 PST 2011
  */
 /* Reset.less
  * Props to Eric Meyer (meyerweb.com) for his CSS reset file. We're using an adapted version here	that cuts out some of the reset HTML elements we will never need here (i.e., dfn, samp, etc).
diff --git a/js/bootstrap-alerts.js b/js/bootstrap-alerts.js
index 37bb430aa2..7c4b919f70 100644
--- a/js/bootstrap-alerts.js
+++ b/js/bootstrap-alerts.js
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
   * ====================== */
 
   var Alert = function ( content, options ) {
+    if (options == 'close') return this.close.call(content)
     this.settings = $.extend({}, $.fn.alert.defaults, options)
     this.$element = $(content)
       .delegate(this.settings.selector, 'click', this.close)
@@ -62,7 +63,10 @@
   Alert.prototype = {
 
     close: function (e) {
-      var $element = $(this).parent('.alert-message')
+      var $element = $(this)
+        , className = 'alert-message'
+
+      $element = $element.hasClass(className) ? $element : $element.parent()
 
       e && e.preventDefault()
       $element.removeClass('in')
@@ -92,7 +96,12 @@
       var $this = $(this)
 
       if ( typeof options == 'string' ) {
-        return $this.data('alert')[options]()
+        var data = $this.data('alert')
+
+        if (typeof data == 'object') {
+          return data[options].call( $this )
+        }
+
       }
 
       $(this).data('alert', new Alert( this, options ))