docs: def get_text(item, tag, default=False):
          """ returns text content of an xml tag """
          try:
              xmlnode = item.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0].firstChild
          except IndexError as e:
              if default is not False:
                  return default
              else:
                  raise IndexError(e)
  
          if xmlnode is not None:
              return unicode(xmlnode.nodeValue)
          # empty tag
          else:
              return ''