Div

body { background: #eea }
div.part { background: #acf; border: dotted 3px green; padding: 1em }

Wasn't div weird? It's gotten better. Thankfully, it is slightly less hideous than span. (Span does nothing.)

I like HTML to be a descriptive language. You could think of div like:

div 1
----
div 2
----
...
(sort of like blocks, don't you think?)

In each division you'd exercise control as you wished (like alignment/centering, background, border, etc.). I use divs quite a bit in some designs (like Summer 2002).

Strangely, because div is so silly, it is one of my favorite styles.