> I'm trying to filter an external rss feed using xls so that 
> only those feed items that contain at least one of a list of 
> words are selected. The code below does that, but I'm 
> wondering if there isn't a more succint and easier to 
> maintain way, 

XSLT 1.0 isn't known for its succinctness.

In 2.0 I would do:

 <xsl:variable name="keywords" as="xs:string*">
   <w>word1</w>
   <w>word2</w>
   <w>word3</w>
 </xsl:variable>

 <xsl:function name="f:matches-keyword" as="xs:boolean">
   <xsl:param name="in" as="xs:string"/>
   <xsl:sequence select="some $w in $keywords satisfies contains($in, $w)"/>
 </xsl:function>

 <xsl:template match="item[f:matches-keyword(description)]">
   .. process the item ..
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="item">
   .. do nothing ..
 </xsl:template>

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/