diff --git a/src/or/connection.c b/src/or/connection.c
index 8edfe8ed18..e4b99a4bfa 100644
--- a/src/or/connection.c
+++ b/src/or/connection.c
@@ -414,6 +414,9 @@ int connection_handle_read(connection_t *conn) {
        router_mark_as_down(conn->nickname);
     }
     /* There's a read error; kill the connection.*/
+    /* XXX This is the place. We need to somehow indicate to
+     * conn that it should never try to flush, or do anything
+     * with conn->s but close it. */
     connection_mark_for_close(conn, END_STREAM_REASON_MISC);
     return -1;
   }
diff --git a/src/or/main.c b/src/or/main.c
index 7bec18ab62..8e701341d3 100644
--- a/src/or/main.c
+++ b/src/or/main.c
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@ static void conn_read(int i) {
       if (!conn->marked_for_close) {
         /* this connection is broken. remove it */
         /* XXX This shouldn't ever happen anymore. */
+        /* XXX but it'll clearly happen on MS_WINDOWS from POLLERR, right? */
         log_fn(LOG_ERR,"Unhandled error on read for %s connection (fd %d); removing",
                conn_type_to_string[conn->type], conn->s);
         connection_mark_for_close(conn,0);
@@ -220,8 +221,10 @@ static void conn_close_if_marked(int i) {
   assert_connection_ok(conn, time(NULL));
   if(conn->marked_for_close) {
     log_fn(LOG_INFO,"Cleaning up connection (fd %d).",conn->s);
-    if(conn->s >= 0) { /* might be an incomplete edge connection */
+    if(conn->s >= 0) { /* -1 means it's an incomplete edge connection */
       /* FIXME there's got to be a better way to check for this -- and make other checks? */
+/* XXX the below two calls to flush_buf should not happen if the
+ * conn got hung up on. */
       if(connection_speaks_cells(conn)) {
         if(conn->state == OR_CONN_STATE_OPEN)
           flush_buf_tls(conn->tls, conn->outbuf, &conn->outbuf_flushlen);