Using Backbone.js I know it\'s highly recommended to set a model\'s property using the set method, and NOT by directly modifying the attributes internal hash.
In the annotated source code mentioned by Brian Genisio you can read the following lines:
"Handle both "key", value and {key: value} -style arguments.".
So you can just use model.set(myProperty,"bar",options).
Perhaps they've added this feature after the post of Brian Genisio.. i dunno.