window.onload = function() {
	
	<!------------add background color to alternating rightside list items------->
	
	// add conditional for to detect objects for graceful degradation
	if (!document.getElementById || !document.getElementsByTagName) {return;}
	
	// isolating the rightside id holding the list items
	var container = document.getElementById('events');
	
	// creating a collection of all the rightside list items
	var eventTableRows = container.getElementsByTagName('tr');
	
	// determining the collection length
	var rowTotal = eventTableRows.length;
	
	// adding a class to every other list item to alter its color
	for (var i=1; i<rowTotal; i = i + 2) {
		eventTableRows[i].className += ' odd';
	}
}