Switching Between Two Column Mode and One Column Mode

Hi-ya

I am trying to transform a rss feeds.

Often they are circa 250 characters and then sometimes they have loads of
text.

When they are short I would like to format them (in html) into two columns
and when they are long I leave them in one column.

Currently one column mode looks like 

<xsl:for-each select="rss/channel/item">
	table and contents
</xsl:for>


But I can't get my head around the problem of switching columns. 

I have no problem testing the length. 

But let's say I find a short one, well I should also test that the next one
is short, how do I peek ahead? And then say the next one is a short one how
do I get it's value, and skip it during the next iteration?

Any help would be grand, thanks

kent