def _format_content(content):
    """Converts the ATOM 'content' node into a dict,
        which will allow one to pass in a dict which has
        an optionaly 'type' argument
        """
    if type(content) is dict:
        if 'type' not in content:
            content['type'] = 'text'
        return content
    else:
        return {'type': 'html', 'content': content}
