Yeah, see you could do that with half as much code and twice as readable, meaning less time developing and more time bouncing.
javascript code:
document.getElementById('hoist').innerHTML = '[extra code]' + document.getElementById('hoist').innerHTML;
javascript code:
$j('#hoist').prepend( '[extra code]' );
javascript code:
document.getElementById('me').childNodes;
javascript code:
$j('#me>*');
By the way, that's basic CSS selectors, not some random new language, (can also do $j('#me').children() if you really wanted).
Which is something I don't think anyone's mentioned: jQuery isn't some fancy new thing to learn: it's just CSS selectors plus standard functions.