title: Getting previously selected item in select box with jQuery
body: <p>I have a single item HTML select box on which I'd like to find out the what item was selected just prior to changing selection to the new item.</p>
  
  <p>By the time the change event is fired, it's already too late:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$("select").change(function () {
    var str = "";
    $("select option:selected").each(function () {
        // this will get me the current selected item (the new one)
        str += $(this).text() + " "; });          
  })
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The docs say that 'The change event fires when a control loses the input focus and its value has been modified since gaining focus.' </p>
  
  <p>However, trapping the 'blur' event doesn't seem to be the right event either and there's no "onFocusLost" type of event.. </p>
  
  <p>Is this feasible in a cross-browser compatible way without a lot of hoop jumping?</p>