A small pet peeve

When I read blogs, I vehemently hate it when bloggers discuss people in their lives by calling them by only the first letter of their names.

For example (and this is totally made up):

"The other day when I was at the store with M, I saw P, who told me about how she and B were going to take L to see G and S.

What what what? What is happening here? Who are these people? Are we talking about real live humans or are we discussing Letter People? I know the blogger is trying to somehow "protect" the subject by reducing him/her to a single letter, but the problem is that all characterization falls away and you run into the danger of the reader getting substantially bored, skimming over the sentence, and/or falling asleep.

Why not try using fake names? I.e.:

"The other day when I was at the store with Mabel, I saw Portia, who told me about how she and Bubba were going to take Lulu to see George and Sam.

To me, this sentence is muuuuch better. Keeps you reading.

So it may be a little difficult keeping track of the names you made up for real-life people, but that's the challenge. I'm challenging all you bloggers out there to become writers.

I for one will continue to call people by their actual names, because (1) their names are usually a large extension of their personalities, (2) pretty much everyone I know is an adult and I don't feel a need to protect them, and (3) nobody reads my blog anyway.

And for anyone who doesn't like my personal policy, please contact me...I will gladly change your name in my blog. But know that you run the risk of becoming a Wehezikiah.