diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f39e0e9188..14471439d9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Tue Oct 23 06:15:40 2012  Aaron Patterson <aaron@tenderlovemaking.com>
+
+	* ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb: Updated the RegExp to catch
+	  Strings earlier in the tokenization process.  Thanks Kevin Menard!
+
 Tue Oct 23 06:12:39 2012  Aaron Patterson <aaron@tenderlovemaking.com>
 
 	* ext/psych/lib/psych/visitors/to_ruby.rb: Handle nil tags specially
diff --git a/ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb b/ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb
index ce4b767082..9130746347 100644
--- a/ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb
+++ b/ext/psych/lib/psych/scalar_scanner.rb
@@ -24,7 +24,9 @@ module Psych
       return string if @string_cache.key?(string)
 
       case string
-      when /^[A-Za-z_~]/
+      # Check for a String type, being careful not to get caught by hash keys, hex values, and
+      # special floats (e.g., -.inf).
+      when /^[^\d\.:-]?[A-Za-z_\s!@#\$%\^&\*\(\)\{\}\<\>\|\/\\~;=]+/
         if string.length > 5
           @string_cache[string] = true
           return string