RE: why doesn't 'self::NODE' work?

In addition to the other answers you have received, let me add a few
things.  First of all, your template is not returning the results you
see.  It may very well not even be called.  Instead, your results are
being returned by the xslt default template, which returns the text
content of an element of there are no other templates available.

You can demonstrate this by adding a template that matches all elements
but does nothing -

<xsl:template match='*'/>

Of course, I had to make an assumption about how you were trying to
invoke your template, but when I added this null template, the output
vanished.

<xsl:template match="*">
  <blink>
    <xsl:value-of select="local-name()"/>
  </blink>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

Cheers,
Wendell

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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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