closing a connection from "outside" an application (for testing)

Hi all,

I have a mod_python web-app that connects to a database and every once
in a while has closed the connection when I try to get a cursor; now I
have code that tests for "conn.closed" and reopens if necessary before
returning the cursor.

My question:  is there some way to get the connection to close (on
purpose) in order to test the code that reopens the connection?

Thx!
W