Strange Error with working with content query web parts

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I was in the process of customizing the itemstyle.xsl style sheet to implement some custom content query web part (CQWP) layouts when I ran across the following error:

This "unexpected error" was occurring when I tried to edit the properties of a CQWP. I couldn’t find anything useful in the SharePoint error logs in the 12 Hive so I had to troubleshoot by hand. I finally figured out that this error was being caused by a bad itemstyle.xsl style sheet. The way to prevent this is to view your style sheet in a browser before uploading it to the server.