Hello everyone,
I need to know how to use a WHERE clause to weed out elements that are not
present. If I remove the where altogether and all elements are present app
runs as should. However, sometimes the element "ThumbNail" is not present
and app fails - stories not set.

I have tried:
Where story.Element("thumbnail") is not nothing
Where story.Element("thumbnail") <> ""
Where story.Element("thumbnail") not nothing

What is missing?  I have included the sub in question and also an example
xml file. If you look at the xml, one story is missing the ThumbNail
element.

************ Piece of code
   Sub DisplayStories(ByVal xmlContent As String)

       Dim XDocEng As New XDocument
       Dim XDoc As XDocument = XDocEng.Parse(xmlContent)

       Dim stories As IEnumerable = From story In XDoc.Descendants("story")
_
                                    Where story.Element("thumbnail"). = ""
_
                                    Select New
clsDiggStory(story.Attribute("id"), story.Element("title"),
story.Element("description"), story.Attribute("href"),
story.Attribute("link"), story.Element("thumbnail").Attribute("src"))

       lst.ItemsSource = stories

   End Sub

*********** xmlcontent
<stories timestamp="1204647550" min_date="1202055540" total="7579"
offset="0" count="5">
 <story id="5524474"
link="http://grandislandcomputers.com/blog.html#9_inch_eeepc"
submit_date="1204647466" diggs="1" comments="0" status="upcoming"
media="news" href="http://digg.com/gadgets/The_New_9_inch_Asus_EEE_Pc">
   <title>The New 9 inch Asus EEE Pc</title>
   <description>The New 9 inch Asus EEE Pc, promises a lot! Read on for
further review!</description>
   <user name="KidDeath" icon="http://digg.com/img/udl.png"
registered="1194646831" profileviews="269" fullname="Kid Death" />
   <topic name="Gadgets" short_name="gadgets" />
   <container name="Technology" short_name="technology" />
   <thumbnail originalwidth="440" originalheight="330"
contentType="image/jpeg"
src="http://digg.com/gadgets/The_New_9_inch_Asus_EEE_Pc/t.jpg" width="80"
height="80" />
 </story>
 <story id="5524441"
link="http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/04/video-meizu-m8-mini-one/"
submit_date="1204647357" diggs="1" comments="0" status="upcoming"
media="news" href="http://digg.com/gadgets/Video_Meizu_M8_mini_One">
   <title>Video: Meizu M8 mini One</title>
   <description>It doesn't even work. You can't even call this as a
prototype.</description>
   <user name="muzocan" icon="http://digg.com/users/muzocan/l.png"
registered="1204026081" profileviews="12" fullname="Muzaffer Can" />
   <topic name="Gadgets" short_name="gadgets" />
   <container name="Technology" short_name="technology" />
   <thumbnail originalwidth="440" originalheight="330"
contentType="image/jpeg"
src="http://digg.com/gadgets/Video_Meizu_M8_mini_One/t.jpg" width="80"
height="80" />
 </story>
 <story id="5524290"
link="http://www.javoedgeblog.com/2008/03/04/t303-is-sony-ericssons-latest-petite-slider/"
submit_date="1204646821" diggs="1" comments="0" status="upcoming"
media="news"
href="http://digg.com/gadgets/T303_Is_Sony_Ericsson_s_Latest_Petite_Slider">
   <title>T303 Is Sony Ericssonâ?Ts Latest Petite Slider</title>
   <description>The new Sony Ericsson T303 may not be the Xperia X1, but it
looks like a tiny, simple slider phone that will fit in any pocket. Sony
Ericsson says that it combines â?opremium finish and materials with a good
feature-set to deliver style with substance,� which is probably their own
stylish but insubstantial way of saying..</description>
   <user name="JAVOedge" icon="http://digg.com/users/JAVOedge/l.png"
registered="1175193503" profileviews="1218" />
   <topic name="Gadgets" short_name="gadgets" />
   <container name="Technology" short_name="technology" />
   <thumbnail originalwidth="463" originalheight="286"
contentType="image/jpeg"
src="http://digg.com/gadgets/T303_Is_Sony_Ericsson_s_Latest_Petite_Slider/t.jpg"
width="80" height="80" />
 </story>
 <story id="5524228"
link="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_871649.htm"
submit_date="1204646609" diggs="2" comments="0" status="upcoming"
media="news"
href="http://digg.com/gadgets/Widgets_The_Future_of_Online_Ads">
   <title>Widgets: The Future of Online Ads</title>
   <description>Look to the evolution of television advertising to
understand the necessity of widgets in today's online world</description>
   <user name="paisley" icon="http://digg.com/users/paisley/l.png"
registered="1132241682" profileviews="3481" fullname="dj paisley amoeba" />
   <topic name="Gadgets" short_name="gadgets" />
   <container name="Technology" short_name="technology" />
 </story>
 <story id="5524209"
link="http://www.aboutprojectors.com/news/2008/03/04/infocus-play-big-in83-projector-c
oming-soon/"
submit_date="1204646524" diggs="1" comments="0" status="upcoming"
media="news"
href="http://digg.com/gadgets/InFocus_Play_Big_IN83_Projector_Coming_Soon">
   <title>InFocus Play Big IN83 Projector Coming Soon</title>
   <description>Coming later this month is the InFocus Play Big IN83. This
projector features 1600 ANSI lumens and full HD (1920 x 1080)
resolution.</description>
   <user name="AboutProjectors"
icon="http://digg.com/users/AboutProjectors/l.png" registered="1158948006"
profileviews="726" />
   <topic name="Gadgets" short_name="gadgets" />
   <container name="Technology" short_name="technology" />
   <thumbnail originalwidth="300" originalheight="198"
contentType="image/jpeg"
src="http://digg.com/gadgets/InFocus_Play_Big_IN83_Projector_Coming_Soon/t.jpg"
width="80" height="80" />
 </story>
</stories>