Optional Closing Tags in HTML

[Ameno]

For as long as I've been validating web pages, I never realized that the closing </head> tag was optional in HTML. I feel as if I've missed the boat at times.

While I'm all for trimming excess code, I just cannot for the life of me strip out closing tags because they are optional in HTML. I'd be concerned that something, somewhere would not parse the document correctly if I removed the closing </head> element.

Are my concerns unfounded?
_________________
Charity Fundraising Idea (http://www.bigpricelist.co.uk/) Best Self-Cert Mortgage (http://www.self-cert-mortgage-centre.co.uk/best-self-cert-mortgage1.html)

[Fishnagles]

I would never remove standard tags like that for the sake of cleaning code.... Removing empty table tags or comments, java-script, etc.. is one thing, but I wouldn't strip any standard elements.