[Zope] mysql connections in External Methods

[Dennis Allison]

I have an external method that opens its own connection to MySQL and
performs a few reads and updates, then I close the connection.  
Apparently closing the connection does not really close things off as
the connections are persistent.  Eventually, I run out and things 
grind to a halt.  Is there a way to force the connection to really die?
(The obvious alternative is to either have a single connection which 
persists in the external method or to fetch the connection from Zope,
either of which will work, of course.)