Wow, this is quite a thread.

Check the references section on the question and you'll see where I got the idea for it. I suppose I should have checked up on my source, but the information in the training kit actually made sense to me, so I thought it'd make a neat Question of the Day.

I didn't take into account CROSS APPLY which I've never used.

My apologies for the poorly worded question, but I'm still glad I posted it. I'm learning all sorts of things from this discussion. The primary thing being even Microsoft Press authors don't apparently get this stuff right. @=)