public static function getMethod() {
    if(null === self::$method) {
      // Make the method upper case.
      self::$method = @strtoupper($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']);

      // A quick-and-dirty test to drop invalid methods.
      if(!self::$method || !ctype_upper(self::$method)) {
        self::$method = '';
      }
    }
    return self::$method;
  }