What is the accepted way to display certain content on different pages I have a couple different pages.  Each page has a main content area and a sidebar.  Each sidebar contains a paragraph unique to that page.  It is necessary that the paragraph in the sidebar and the main content are different content types.

I handled this by using references module.  I created a content type "category page" and a content type "page spotlight".  The page spotlight has a "node reference" field that references a category page.  I then created a view that enforces that relationship.  This allows me to map the spotlight to the pages.  

I am wondering is using taxononmy a better approach?  I come from a very structured programming background where there are "right" ways of doing things, and I am just looking for the "drupal way" of approaching this problem.
That is definitely one way to do it.  I don't think there is a "Drupal way" to accomplish this per se, but you can also accomplish this through taxonomy and panels.  It really just depends on if having an extra Content Type bothers you or not.

I think the way you currently have it is the most efficient way.  To me you should only use taxonomy if it fits the mold of Drupal's definition of taxonomy.


  
    Taxonomy, a powerful core module, gives your sites use of the organizational keywords known in other systems as categories, tags, or metadata. In Drupal, these terms are gathered within "vocabularies." The Taxonomy module allows you to create, manage and apply those vocabularies.