diff --git a/Include/objimpl.h b/Include/objimpl.h
index 7c68194..447a56e 100644
--- a/Include/objimpl.h
+++ b/Include/objimpl.h
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@
 
 /* Macros */
 #ifdef WITH_PYMALLOC
-#ifdef PYMALLOC_DEBUG
+#ifdef PYMALLOC_DEBUG	/* WITH_PYMALLOC && PYMALLOC_DEBUG */
 PyAPI_FUNC(void *) _PyObject_DebugMalloc(size_t nbytes);
 PyAPI_FUNC(void *) _PyObject_DebugRealloc(void *p, size_t nbytes);
 PyAPI_FUNC(void) _PyObject_DebugFree(void *p);
@@ -124,11 +124,7 @@
 #else	/* ! WITH_PYMALLOC */
 #define PyObject_MALLOC		PyMem_MALLOC
 #define PyObject_REALLOC	PyMem_REALLOC
-/* This is an odd one!  For backward compatibility with old extensions, the
-   PyMem "release memory" functions have to invoke the object allocator's
-   free() function.  When pymalloc isn't enabled, that leaves us using
-   the platform free(). */
-#define PyObject_FREE		free
+#define PyObject_FREE		PyMem_FREE
 
 #endif	/* WITH_PYMALLOC */
 
diff --git a/Include/pymem.h b/Include/pymem.h
index f8aef29..671f967 100644
--- a/Include/pymem.h
+++ b/Include/pymem.h
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
 /* Redirect all memory operations to Python's debugging allocator. */
 #define PyMem_MALLOC		PyObject_MALLOC
 #define PyMem_REALLOC		PyObject_REALLOC
+#define PyMem_FREE		PyObject_FREE
 
 #else	/* ! PYMALLOC_DEBUG */
 
@@ -68,14 +69,10 @@
    pymalloc. To solve these problems, allocate an extra byte. */
 #define PyMem_MALLOC(n)         malloc((n) ? (n) : 1)
 #define PyMem_REALLOC(p, n)     realloc((p), (n) ? (n) : 1)
+#define PyMem_FREE		free
 
 #endif	/* PYMALLOC_DEBUG */
 
-/* In order to avoid breaking old code mixing PyObject_{New, NEW} with
-   PyMem_{Del, DEL} and PyMem_{Free, FREE}, the PyMem "release memory"
-   functions have to be redirected to the object deallocator. */
-#define PyMem_FREE           	PyObject_FREE
-
 /*
  * Type-oriented memory interface
  * ==============================
@@ -95,11 +92,11 @@
 #define PyMem_RESIZE(p, type, n) \
 	( (p) = (type *) PyMem_REALLOC((p), (n) * sizeof(type)) )
 
-/* In order to avoid breaking old code mixing PyObject_{New, NEW} with
-   PyMem_{Del, DEL} and PyMem_{Free, FREE}, the PyMem "release memory"
-   functions have to be redirected to the object deallocator. */
-#define PyMem_Del		PyObject_Free
-#define PyMem_DEL		PyObject_FREE
+/* PyMem{Del,DEL} are left over from ancient days, and shouldn't be used
+ * anymore.  They're just confusing aliases for PyMem_{Free,FREE} now.
+ */
+#define PyMem_Del		PyMem_Free
+#define PyMem_DEL		PyMem_FREE
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1d75424..ae0e971 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@
 
 - Everything under lib-old was removed.  This includes the following modules:
     Para, addpack, cmp, cmpcache, codehack, dircmp, dump, find, fmt, grep,
-    lockfile, newdir, ni, packmail, poly, rand, statcache, tb, tzparse, 
+    lockfile, newdir, ni, packmail, poly, rand, statcache, tb, tzparse,
     util, whatsound, whrandom, zmod
 
 - The following modules were removed:  regsub, reconvert, regex, regex_syntax.
@@ -942,6 +942,17 @@
 C API
 -----
 
+- ``PyMem_{Del, DEL}`` and ``PyMem_{Free, FREE}`` no longer map to
+  ``PyObject_{Free, FREE}``.  They map to the system ``free()`` now.  If memory
+  is obtained via the ``PyObject_`` family, it must be released via the
+  ``PyObject_`` family, and likewise for the ``PyMem_`` family.  This has
+  always been officially true, but when Python's small-object allocator was
+  introduced, an attempt was made to cater to a few extension modules
+  discovered at the time that obtained memory via ``PyObject_New`` but
+  released it via ``PyMem_DEL``.  It's years later, and if such code still
+  exists it will fail now (probably with segfaults, but calling wrong
+  low-level memory management functions can yield many symptoms).
+
 - Added a C API for set and frozenset objects.
 
 - Removed PyRange_New().
diff --git a/Modules/parsermodule.c b/Modules/parsermodule.c
index 3a886b4..0f8da8b 100644
--- a/Modules/parsermodule.c
+++ b/Modules/parsermodule.c
@@ -701,7 +701,7 @@
                 }
             }
             len = PyString_GET_SIZE(temp) + 1;
-            strn = (char *)PyMem_MALLOC(len);
+            strn = (char *)PyObject_MALLOC(len);
             if (strn != NULL)
                 (void) memcpy(strn, PyString_AS_STRING(temp), len);
             Py_DECREF(temp);
@@ -719,11 +719,11 @@
         }
         err = PyNode_AddChild(root, type, strn, *line_num, 0);
         if (err == E_NOMEM) {
-            PyMem_DEL(strn);
+            PyObject_FREE(strn);
             return (node *) PyErr_NoMemory();
         }
         if (err == E_OVERFLOW) {
-            PyMem_DEL(strn);
+            PyObject_FREE(strn);
             PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
                             "unsupported number of child nodes");
             return NULL;
@@ -742,7 +742,7 @@
         }
         Py_XDECREF(elem);
     }
-    return (root);
+    return root;
 }
 
 
@@ -787,7 +787,7 @@
             if (res && encoding) {
                 Py_ssize_t len;
                 len = PyString_GET_SIZE(encoding) + 1;
-                res->n_str = (char *)PyMem_MALLOC(len);
+                res->n_str = (char *)PyObject_MALLOC(len);
                 if (res->n_str != NULL)
                     (void) memcpy(res->n_str, PyString_AS_STRING(encoding), len);
                 Py_DECREF(encoding);
diff --git a/PC/_subprocess.c b/PC/_subprocess.c
index b675b88..522a79e 100644
--- a/PC/_subprocess.c
+++ b/PC/_subprocess.c
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 {
 	if (self->handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
 		CloseHandle(self->handle);
-	PyMem_DEL(self);
+	PyObject_FREE(self);
 }
 
 static PyMethodDef sp_handle_methods[] = {
diff --git a/Parser/tokenizer.c b/Parser/tokenizer.c
index b0d9b80..001d31a 100644
--- a/Parser/tokenizer.c
+++ b/Parser/tokenizer.c
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@
 {
 	tok->decoding_erred = 1;
 	if (tok->fp != NULL && tok->buf != NULL) /* see PyTokenizer_Free */
-		PyMem_DEL(tok->buf);
+		PyObject_FREE(tok->buf);
 	tok->buf = NULL;
 	return NULL;		/* as if it were EOF */
 }
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@
 static char *
 new_string(const char *s, Py_ssize_t len)
 {
-	char* result = PyMem_NEW(char, len + 1);
+	char* result = (char *)PyObject_MALLOC(len + 1);
 	if (result != NULL) {
 		memcpy(result, s, len);
 		result[len] = '\0';
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@
 				char* r = new_string(begin, t - begin);
 				char* q = get_normal_name(r);
 				if (r != q) {
-					PyMem_DEL(r);
+					PyObject_FREE(r);
 					r = new_string(q, strlen(q));
 				}
 				return r;
@@ -277,18 +277,18 @@
 					tok->decoding_state = -1;
 				}
 				else
-					PyMem_DEL(cs);
+					PyObject_FREE(cs);
 #else
                                 /* Without Unicode support, we cannot
                                    process the coding spec. Since there
                                    won't be any Unicode literals, that
                                    won't matter. */
-				PyMem_DEL(cs);
+				PyObject_FREE(cs);
 #endif
 			}
 		} else {	/* then, compare cs with BOM */
 			r = (strcmp(tok->encoding, cs) == 0);
-			PyMem_DEL(cs);
+			PyObject_FREE(cs);
 		}
 	}
 	if (!r) {
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@
 		return 1;
 	}
 	if (tok->encoding != NULL)
-		PyMem_DEL(tok->encoding);
+		PyObject_FREE(tok->encoding);
 	tok->encoding = new_string("utf-8", 5);	/* resulting is in utf-8 */
 	return 1;
   NON_BOM:
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@
 
 /* Read a line of text from TOK into S, using the stream in TOK.
    Return NULL on failure, else S.
-   
+
    On entry, tok->decoding_buffer will be one of:
      1) NULL: need to call tok->decoding_readline to get a new line
      2) PyUnicodeObject *: decoding_feof has called tok->decoding_readline and
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@
            (in the s buffer) to copy entire contents of the line read
            by tok->decoding_readline.  tok->decoding_buffer has the overflow.
            In this case, fp_readl is called in a loop (with an expanded buffer)
-           until the buffer ends with a '\n' (or until the end of the file is 
+           until the buffer ends with a '\n' (or until the end of the file is
            reached): see tok_nextc and its calls to decoding_fgets.
 */
 
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@
 			break;
 		} else if (tok->decoding_state > 0) {
 			/* We want a 'raw' read. */
-			line = Py_UniversalNewlineFgets(s, size, 
+			line = Py_UniversalNewlineFgets(s, size,
 							tok->fp, NULL);
 			break;
 		} else {
@@ -502,11 +502,11 @@
 		char buf[500];
 		/* Need to add 1 to the line number, since this line
 		   has not been counted, yet.  */
-		sprintf(buf, 
+		sprintf(buf,
 			"Non-ASCII character '\\x%.2x' "
 			"in file %.200s on line %i, "
 			"but no encoding declared; "
-			"see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details", 
+			"see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details",
 			badchar, tok->filename, tok->lineno + 1);
 		PyErr_SetString(PyExc_SyntaxError, buf);
 		return error_ret(tok);
@@ -537,13 +537,15 @@
 
 /* Fetch a byte from TOK, using the string buffer. */
 
-static int buf_getc(struct tok_state *tok) {
+static int
+buf_getc(struct tok_state *tok) {
 	return Py_CHARMASK(*tok->str++);
 }
 
 /* Unfetch a byte from TOK, using the string buffer. */
 
-static void buf_ungetc(int c, struct tok_state *tok) {
+static void
+buf_ungetc(int c, struct tok_state *tok) {
 	tok->str--;
 	assert(Py_CHARMASK(*tok->str) == c);	/* tok->cur may point to read-only segment */
 }
@@ -551,7 +553,8 @@
 /* Set the readline function for TOK to ENC. For the string-based
    tokenizer, this means to just record the encoding. */
 
-static int buf_setreadl(struct tok_state *tok, const char* enc) {
+static int
+buf_setreadl(struct tok_state *tok, const char* enc) {
 	tok->enc = enc;
 	return 1;
 }
@@ -653,7 +656,7 @@
 	struct tok_state *tok = tok_new();
 	if (tok == NULL)
 		return NULL;
-	if ((tok->buf = PyMem_NEW(char, BUFSIZ)) == NULL) {
+	if ((tok->buf = (char *)PyObject_MALLOC(BUFSIZ)) == NULL) {
 		PyTokenizer_Free(tok);
 		return NULL;
 	}
@@ -672,14 +675,14 @@
 PyTokenizer_Free(struct tok_state *tok)
 {
 	if (tok->encoding != NULL)
-		PyMem_DEL(tok->encoding);
+		PyObject_FREE(tok->encoding);
 #ifndef PGEN
 	Py_XDECREF(tok->decoding_readline);
 	Py_XDECREF(tok->decoding_buffer);
 #endif
 	if (tok->fp != NULL && tok->buf != NULL)
-		PyMem_DEL(tok->buf);
-	PyMem_DEL(tok);
+		PyObject_FREE(tok->buf);
+	PyMem_FREE(tok);
 }
 
 #if !defined(PGEN) && defined(Py_USING_UNICODE)
@@ -721,7 +724,7 @@
 	PyMem_FREE(*inp);
 	*inp = converted;
 	if (tok->encoding != NULL)
-		PyMem_DEL(tok->encoding);
+		PyObject_FREE(tok->encoding);
 	tok->encoding = new_string(encoding, strlen(encoding));
 	if (tok->encoding == NULL)
 		goto error_nomem;
@@ -790,10 +793,10 @@
 				size_t oldlen = tok->cur - tok->buf;
 				size_t newlen = oldlen + strlen(new);
 				char *buf = tok->buf;
-				PyMem_RESIZE(buf, char, newlen+1);
+				buf = (char *)PyObject_REALLOC(buf, newlen+1);
 				tok->lineno++;
 				if (buf == NULL) {
-					PyMem_DEL(tok->buf);
+					PyObject_FREE(tok->buf);
 					tok->buf = NULL;
 					PyMem_FREE(new);
 					tok->done = E_NOMEM;
@@ -811,7 +814,7 @@
 			else {
 				tok->lineno++;
 				if (tok->buf != NULL)
-					PyMem_DEL(tok->buf);
+					PyObject_FREE(tok->buf);
 				tok->buf = new;
 				tok->line_start = tok->buf;
 				tok->cur = tok->buf;
@@ -826,7 +829,8 @@
 			char *pt;
 			if (tok->start == NULL) {
 				if (tok->buf == NULL) {
-					tok->buf = PyMem_NEW(char, BUFSIZ);
+					tok->buf = (char *)
+						PyObject_MALLOC(BUFSIZ);
 					if (tok->buf == NULL) {
 						tok->done = E_NOMEM;
 						return EOF;
@@ -861,7 +865,8 @@
 				Py_ssize_t curvalid = tok->inp - tok->buf;
 				Py_ssize_t newsize = curvalid + BUFSIZ;
 				char *newbuf = tok->buf;
-				PyMem_RESIZE(newbuf, char, newsize);
+				newbuf = (char *)PyObject_REALLOC(newbuf,
+								  newsize);
 				if (newbuf == NULL) {
 					tok->done = E_NOMEM;
 					tok->cur = tok->inp;
@@ -1184,9 +1189,9 @@
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	
+
 	tok->start = tok->cur;
-	
+
 	/* Return pending indents/dedents */
 	if (tok->pendin != 0) {
 		if (tok->pendin < 0) {
@@ -1198,17 +1203,17 @@
 			return INDENT;
 		}
 	}
-	
+
  again:
 	tok->start = NULL;
 	/* Skip spaces */
 	do {
 		c = tok_nextc(tok);
 	} while (c == ' ' || c == '\t' || c == '\014');
-	
+
 	/* Set start of current token */
 	tok->start = tok->cur - 1;
-	
+
 	/* Skip comment, while looking for tab-setting magic */
 	if (c == '#') {
 		static char *tabforms[] = {
@@ -1226,7 +1231,7 @@
 		} while (c != EOF && c != '\n' &&
 			 tp - cbuf + 1 < sizeof(cbuf));
 		*tp = '\0';
-		for (cp = tabforms; 
+		for (cp = tabforms;
 		     cp < tabforms + sizeof(tabforms)/sizeof(tabforms[0]);
 		     cp++) {
 			if ((tp = strstr(cbuf, *cp))) {
@@ -1244,12 +1249,12 @@
 		while (c != EOF && c != '\n')
 			c = tok_nextc(tok);
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Check for EOF and errors now */
 	if (c == EOF) {
 		return tok->done == E_EOF ? ENDMARKER : ERRORTOKEN;
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Identifier (most frequent token!) */
 	if (isalpha(c) || c == '_') {
 		/* Process r"", u"" and ur"" */
@@ -1277,7 +1282,7 @@
 		*p_end = tok->cur;
 		return NAME;
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Newline */
 	if (c == '\n') {
 		tok->atbol = 1;
@@ -1288,7 +1293,7 @@
                 tok->cont_line = 0;
 		return NEWLINE;
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Period or number starting with period? */
 	if (c == '.') {
 		c = tok_nextc(tok);
@@ -1451,7 +1456,7 @@
 		*p_end = tok->cur;
 		return STRING;
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Line continuation */
 	if (c == '\\') {
 		c = tok_nextc(tok);
@@ -1463,7 +1468,7 @@
                 tok->cont_line = 1;
 		goto again; /* Read next line */
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Check for two-character token */
 	{
 		int c2 = tok_nextc(tok);
@@ -1482,7 +1487,7 @@
 		}
 		tok_backup(tok, c2);
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Keep track of parentheses nesting level */
 	switch (c) {
 	case '(':
@@ -1496,7 +1501,7 @@
 		tok->level--;
 		break;
 	}
-	
+
 	/* Punctuation character */
 	*p_start = tok->start;
 	*p_end = tok->cur;
diff --git a/Python/pythonrun.c b/Python/pythonrun.c
index 7b1f264..cd22942 100644
--- a/Python/pythonrun.c
+++ b/Python/pythonrun.c
@@ -1457,7 +1457,7 @@
 	v = Py_BuildValue("(ziiz)", err->filename,
 			  err->lineno, err->offset, err->text);
 	if (err->text != NULL) {
-		PyMem_DEL(err->text);
+		PyObject_FREE(err->text);
 		err->text = NULL;
 	}
 	w = NULL;