It sounds proper when The New York Times refers to the current president as "Mr. Bush" or Hillary* as "Mrs. Clinton", but sometimes this seemingly self-gratifying and unnecessary practice comes across as simply self-gratifying and unnecessary. Take for instance an article about the band Fall Out Boy. Ok, overall, they are pretty terrible, but not in a loathesome way. At least they write and perform their own music and seem to stay out of trouble for the most part. They might even enjoy what they do, so there's really not a blog post anywhere in there.**

However, reading the article smoothly gets harder with the repetitive use of "Mr. Stump" and "Mr. Wentz". Regardless of the fact that the writer couldn't decide who he wanted the article to actually be about, there is a great chasm between the perception of a Mr. Stump or Mr. Wentz and the guys the article is talking about. The point seemed to be to illustrate how unremarkable and unnoticable Stump is, while portraying how flamboyant and megalomanious Wentz is. It doesn't seem like either intent was accomplished.

Pete Wentz is really annoying, but he's never done anything to warrant his personality being brought up every time Fall Out Boy releases an album, launches a tour or appears on TV. Yes, he's dated/married Ashlee Simpson, but the writer almost seemed to intentionally only mention "Mrs. Simpson" once throughout. This would seem to be one of those cases of the NYT wanting to be high-brow in its approach and delivery of information, but can't resist the "juicy" details that all the other media outlets get to use.

It would seem this entire article could have been equally effective in the following form:

Fall Out Boy is a band with a new album out. Their lead singer is uncharacteristically quiet and unassuming, considering he's the lead singer of a platinum-selling band. Their bass player, usually an unreconized afterthought in many successful bands, is a bit of a glory-hog. He's probably best known for his marriage to Ashlee Simpson, who is probably best known for being Jessica Simpson's sister, who is probably best known for being dumb and formerly married to a guy in 98 Degrees, who are probably best known for not being N'Sync, who (except JT, omg!) are probably best known for not being The Backstreet Boys, who are probably known for being the evil second-coming of New Kids on the Block.

Fin.

* Hillary Clinton no longer can merely be described as "former First Lady" or "New York Senator" or "Secretary of State" or "Presidential hopeful". She has become a prescence best described simply as herself. Much like Oprah. This isn't a compliment, by the way.

**Ok, there's not really anything warranting a blog post here. It's Monday, it's cold, it's raining and work is slow.