Important attributes

This is really just a randomly selected example, but why is it so common for every mention of a person in a news article followed by a mention of that person's age? Is it really impossible to understand a reference to a human being without know how old that human being is? Could we try it with some other randomly selected attribute?

Until Palin, who has a vagina, joined him on the campaign trail, McCain, who has a penis, had limited his political events to smaller town hall meetings and rallies of a few hundred people. His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, routinely draws thousands of people to his speeches, a phenomenon McCain has tried to use to his advantage by labeling Obama, who like McCain has a penis, a celebrity.