function checkElem(a) {
      var r = [];
      // Force the argument into an array, if it isn’t already
      if ( a.constructor != Array ) a = [ a ];
  
      for ( var i = 0; i < a.length; i++ ) {
          // If there’s a String
          if ( a[i].constructor == String ) {
              // Create a temporary element to house the HTML
              var div = document.createElement("div");
  
              // Inject the HTML, to convert it into a DOM structure
              div.innerHTML = a[i];
  
               // Extract the DOM structure back out of the temp DIV
               for ( var j = 0; j < div.childNodes.length; j++ )
                   r[r.length] = div.childNodes[j];
          } else if ( a[i].length ) { // If it’s an array
              // Assume that it’s an array of DOM Nodes
              for ( var j = 0; j < a[i].length; j++ )
                  r[r.length] = a[i][j];
          } else { // Otherwise, assume it’s a DOM Node
              r[r.length] = a[i];
          }
      }
      return r;
  }