This is one of my all time favorite threads about an EVA:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61024

I especially like the query posted by RobWafle at 02/01/2006 12:05:48 that had over 40 left joins.

I still stand by what I posted on that thread:

"..I think that the query you posted is a perfect illustration of the biggest disadvantage of the Entity/Attribute model, that it saves a little work up front in data modeling by allowing “open ended” insertion of new attributes at the cost of having to program the true data structure into each query. Of course, there are other annoying little problems, like enforcing not null, DRI, domain integrity, default values, check constraints, creating useful indexes, transactional integrity, etc. Basically, it takes all the most useful features of a relational data model, and throws them away..."