nice article, but I'm puzzled by the statement that you "feel that people are afraid of Joins in SQL Server".

I mean, joins (inner/equi, at least) are one of the most basic things that someone has to know about T-SQL, learned in the same breath as 'select','update','delete','where', etc ...

Now if you said that outer, self and cross-apply joins are what people are afraid (or more likely unaware) of, I'd buy it. Otherwise, I'd say that the person didn't know jack about SQL if they don't know what a simple innner join is.