Jeff Croft pointed out a discovery by UrbanDude: how to use two background images on a Web page. The concept is so simple, that it is easily overlooked: apply a background image to the html tag in addition to the background image you would apply to the body tag. “When setting both an HTML and BODY background, the HTML applies to the entire browser window, but BODY only applies to the content within the BODY tags.” This may have been noted before, but I haven’t seen mention of it. The provided examples do a great job of demonstrating the power of the concept.
This idea opens up many possibilities, while cutting down on the need for extra containers that are used purely for layout elements. One more step down the road of separating markup from presentation.
Now…to find the right project to test the concept…