Enough already!!

This would be terribly funny, if it also weren't so sad.

Nicole over at A Capital Idea relates how a debate has arisen about the proper way to refer to SpongeBob SquarePants on second reference at papers that use courtesy titles. Is that Mr. Pants or Mr. SquarePants?

Oh, stop it. And you wonder why people think we're stupid. Even thinking of using a courtesy title with a cartoon character is absurd (and note in one of the comments that the NYTimes style guide -- that bastion of the Mr. and Mrs. -- says so, too).

Besides, the hand-wringing at the Anderson Independent Mail (reg. req.) aside, down here we solve it simply. On second reference we'd just call him Bubba.