String Encoding Python 2.7 : I have a non-literal string that is programmatically obtained from the title of a printed document online:

    "wxPython: Windows Styles and Events Hunter « The Mouse Vs. The Python" # retrieved string

I am trying to put it in to a database which  does not accept non-ASCII characters and it always throws exceptions every attempt I make to `encode` and `decode` with `UTF-8` encoding. Any suggestions?