Has anyone come across a way to bind simple properties (e.g. <%#
DateTime.Now.Year %>, <%# UserName %> in the underlying HTML) without
doing a general DataBind(); call?

Not only does it seem a massive waste of resources, I find this call
extremely annoying, particularly when working with Master pages where
inevitably I'll end up wiping out any manually build controls such as
added options to dropdowns.

It would be great if there was a Page.DataBind(false); that didn't
re-
bind children controls!

Thanks in advance!