docs: function laconic() {
  
      // create a new element of the requested type
      var el = document.createElement(arguments[0]);
      
      // walk through the rest of the arguments
      for(var i=1; i<arguments.length; i++) {
        var arg = arguments[i];
        if(arg === null || arg === undefined) continue;
  
        // if the argument is a dom node, we simply append it
        if(arg.nodeType === 1) {
          el.appendChild(arg); 
        }
  
        // if the argument is a string or a number, we append it as
        // a new text node
        else if(
            (!!(arg === '' || (arg && arg.charCodeAt && arg.substr))) ||
            (!!(arg === 0  || (arg && arg.toExponential && arg.toFixed)))) {
  
          el.appendChild(document.createTextNode(arg));
        }
  
        // if the argument is a plain-old object, and we're processing the first 
        // argument, then we apply the object's values as element attributes
        else if(i === 1 && typeof(arg) === 'object') {
          for(var key in arg) {
            if(arg.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
              var value = arg[key];
              if(value !== null && value !== undefined) {
                key = key.toLowerCase();
                key = attributeMap[key] || key;
  
                // if the key represents an event (onclick, onchange, etc)
                // we'll set the href to '#' if none is given, and we'll apply
                // the attribute directly to the element for IE7 support.
                var isEvent = key.charAt(0) === 'o' && key.charAt(1) === 'n';
                if(isEvent) {
                  if(arg.href === undefined && key === 'onclick') {
                    el.setAttribute('href', '#');
                  }
                  el[key] = value;
                }
  
                // if we're setting the style attribute, we may need to 
                // use the cssText property
                else if(key === 'style' && el.style.setAttribute) {
                  el.style.setAttribute('cssText', value);
                }
  
                // if we're setting an attribute that's not properly supported 
                // by IE7's setAttribute implementation, then we apply the 
                // attribute directly to the element
                else if(key === 'className' || key === 'htmlFor') {
                  el[key] = value;
                }
  
                // otherwise, we use the standard setAttribute
                else {
                  el.setAttribute(key, value);
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
  
        // if the argument is an array, we append each element
        else if(Object.prototype.toString.call(arg) === '[object Array]') {
          for(var j=0; j<arg.length; j++) {
            var child = arg[j];
            if(child.nodeType === 1) {
              el.appendChild(child);
            }
          }
        }
      }
  
      // Add an appendTo method to the newly created element, which will allow
      // the DOM insertion to be method chained to the creation.  For example:
      // $el.div('foo').appendTo(document.body);
      el.appendTo = function(parentNode) {
        if(parentNode.nodeType === 1 && this.nodeType === 1) {
          parentNode.appendChild(this);
        }
        return this;
      };
      
      return el;
    }