if (nodes.length === 1) { // return single node, breaking parentNode ref from "fragment"
            ret = nodes[0].parentNode.removeChild(nodes[0]);
        } else if (nodes[0] && nodes[0].className === 'yui3-big-dummy') { // using dummy node to preserve some attributes (e.g. OPTION not selected)
            if (nodes.length === 2) {
                ret = nodes[0].nextSibling;
            } else {
                nodes[0].parentNode.removeChild(nodes[0]);
                ret = Y_DOM._nl2frag(nodes, doc);
            }
        } else { // return multiple nodes as a fragment
             ret = Y_DOM._nl2frag(nodes, doc);
        }

return Y_DOM.create('<select><option class="yui3-big-dummy" selected></option>' + html + '</select>', doc);