Those responses were both very helpful. John's additional type checking is straight forward and easy to implement. I will also rewrite the application a second time using the class Gabriel offered. Both of these suggestions will help gain some insight into how Python works.
"Don't even try to understand it - it's a mess. Use the HTMLParser module instead." I personally think the application itself "feels" more complicated than it needs to be but its possible that is just my inexperience. I'm going to do some reading about the HTMLParser module. I'm sure I could make this spider a bit more functional in the process. Thank you again for all of your help!! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
