Is there a way to turn option strict off for just a single line of code?
I'm doing some maintenance work and I need to "cheat" in just one place and I don't want to lower the standard for the entire file.
Sadly, it is not possible for a single line of code in a file. See the MSDN docs.
On the other hand, you could probably make your single line of code a separate function, put that in a new file with partial class attributes, and put Option Strict Off on that one file. The IL compiler will probably inline your function anyway, so it will be equivalent speedwise, but will be ugly from a practical point of view.