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diff --git a/examples/elementtree/pickle.py b/examples/elementtree/pickle.py
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+"""illustrates a quick and dirty way to persist an XML document expressed using ElementTree and pickle.
+
+This is a trivial example using PickleType to marshal/unmarshal the ElementTree 
+document into a binary column.  Compare to explicit.py which stores the individual components of the ElementTree
+structure in distinct rows using two additional mapped entities.  Note that the usage of both
+styles of persistence are identical, as is the structure of the main Document class.
+"""
+
+from sqlalchemy import *
+from sqlalchemy.orm import *
+
+import sys, os
+
+import logging
+logging.basicConfig()
+
+# uncomment to show SQL statements
+#logging.getLogger('sqlalchemy.engine').setLevel(logging.INFO)
+
+# uncomment to show SQL statements and result sets
+#logging.getLogger('sqlalchemy.engine').setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+
+from elementtree import ElementTree
+
+meta = MetaData()
+meta.engine = 'sqlite://'
+
+# stores a top level record of an XML document.  
+# the "element" column will store the ElementTree document as a BLOB.
+documents = Table('documents', meta,
+    Column('document_id', Integer, primary_key=True),
+    Column('filename', String(30), unique=True),
+    Column('element', PickleType)
+)
+
+meta.create_all()
+
+# our document class.  contains a string name,
+# and the ElementTree root element.  
+class Document(object):
+    def __init__(self, name, element):
+        self.filename = name
+        self.element = element
+
+# setup mapper.
+mapper(Document, documents)
+
+###### time to test ! #########
+
+# get ElementTree document
+filename = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]), "test.xml")
+doc = ElementTree.parse(filename)
+    
+# save to DB
+session = create_session()
+session.save(Document("test.xml", doc))
+session.flush()
+
+# clear session (to illustrate a full load), restore
+session.clear()
+document = session.query(Document).filter_by(filename="test.xml").first()
+
+# print
+document.element.write(sys.stdout)
+