Ignore case in string comparison

This is the most pythonic I can think of. Better to ask for foregiveness than for permission:

>>> def iequal(a, b):
...    try:
...       return a.upper() == b.upper()
...    except AttributeError:
...       return a == b
... 
>>> 
>>> iequal(2, 2)
True
>>> iequal(4, 2)
False
>>> iequal("joe", "Joe")
True
>>> iequal("joe", "Joel")
False