#fetch the (cgi)type cookie
sub _cookie {
#read in the lsrfm cookie to test
  my $self = shift;
#  my $cgi = CGI->new;
#  my $type = $cgi->param('type');
  my $type = shift;
#lets check to see if the lsrfm cookie exits
#fecth the domains cookie
  my %cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;
  my $cookies;
  my $lsrfm_cookie;

  if (!%cookies)
  {
    #a domain cookie doesnt exist
    #leave as blank
  }
  else
  {
    #a domain cookie exists
    #fetch the type value
    my $n = 0;
    my $this_cookie;
    my @cookies = (keys %cookies);
    foreach (keys %cookies)
    {
      $this_cookie = $cookies[$n];
      if ($this_cookie eq ('LSRfm'.$type))
      {
        $lsrfm_cookie = $cookies{'LSRfm'.$type}->value;
      }
    $n ++;
    }
  }
return $lsrfm_cookie;
}