Let’s discuss some of the most annoying things on the planet, shall we?

1. When people feel compelled to combine two celebrity names into one cutesy monstrosity, a word so vile that is designed to kill competent brain cells through its sheer level of stupidity. TomKat? Brangelina? My eyes bleed at the very sight of such extemporaneous word vomit.

2. When people attempt to convey scandal by adding the suffix ‘-gate’ to the end of the word. For instance, there was a “major scrapbooking scandal” back in 2007. When the horde of angry scrapbookers found out that everyone thought their alleged scandal was ridiculous and quite benign, they started calling it “scrapbookgate,” as though they could stir my righteous indignation and anger for their cause by invoking the memories of moral terpitudes past. Wrong. The only anger stirred within me is not caused by the wrong-doer, but rather by the pathetic attempt to draw my sympathy through the use of lexicon rather than sound argument.

And you, Denver Post…you have committed two sins of common sense in one foul swoop. McJayGate? I realize that the Jay Cutler-Josh McDaniels infighting has some potentially large repercussions for Broncos fans. However, the bigger problem here has nothing to do with football and everything to do with the way you’re reporting it. You are hyping the issue, catering to the masses, and sensationalizing a story to the realms of tabloid reporting.

I know the Rocky Mountain News is out, but really, I didn’t expect to see your journalistic integrity follow so quickly. If this is the level of news coverage you’re going to give, then the newspaper industry deserves to fall by the wayside.