Yeah, I don't really have a problem with the old way: print("My robot's name is {}. It's {} years old.".format(name, years_old)) Seems reasonable to me. I

Yeah, I don't really have a problem with the old way: print("My robot's name is {}. It's {} years old.".format(name, years_old)) Seems reasonable to me. I don't really see any reason to hack in the locals splat. I guess the one thing it saves you is ordering issues, but in practice, I haven't found those to be terribly inconvenient, and in the rare case they are, you can just do "{name}, {age}".format(name=name, age=years_old)). Yes, both forms are a little longer, but as you state, it's easier to see what's going on. One of Python's biggest attractions, IMO, is that it's batteries included, but not batteries-sealed-under-1000-layers-of-carbonite-locked-by-a-mystical-incantation, like many other dynamic languages. It's usually pretty easy to get in there and see what's happening without having to traverse tons of indirection due to Python's design principle favoring explicit programming styles. I won't lie and say I've never wished for more conventional style string interpolation, but it certainly wasn't a showstopper, and it's not something we should assume we get for free.