Yes, I enjoyed the article too. It has really got me thinking.

Is there an alternative to getting the 'Edge table' other than ...

[font="Courier New"]EXECUTE sp_xml_preparedocument @hdl OUTPUT, @xml

INSERT  INTO @xmlEdgeTbl

        SELECT  *

        FROM    OPENXML(@hdl, N'/doc')

EXECUTE sp_xml_removedocument @hdl

[/font]

...?

If it is only in the region of 6 Ms and isn't a memory hog, then it looks like a good way of doing it.