Sanjaya's Star Burns Brighter than Ever!

Well, just as I predicted yesterday, Sanjaya has sailed through to the next round on American Idol. I didn't see the results show, but fortunately Drudge linked to an informative New York Post article. with the headline, FANS STILL 'IDOL'IZE SANJAYA.

Who is the idiot who writes headlines at the NY Post? I ask because I am genuinely puzzled at the Post's use of Pun Quotes around the word "IDOL" as though it is a clever word play to point out that Sanjaya is an "idol" who--coincidentally--appears on a show that has the word "idol" in its title.

The word "idol" is defined: "somebody or something greatly admired or loved, often to excess." This is what "idol" means in the title of the TV show, American Idol, and it is the same meaning of the word (in verb form) as used in the sentence, "Fans still idolize Sanjaya."

That is not a pun. That is a word used twice to mean the same thing. Why are Pun Quotes put around the second word use?

A pun would be a play on something like the homophones "idle" and "idol." You could say, "Sanjaya's career stalled when he 'idoled' it for too long." That is a pun. It is not a pun to say, "Sanjaya is an idol who sings on American 'Idol'," which is essentially what the NY Post did. That would be like me saying, "I watched American Idol, and also, I'm an 'American'."

Modern society uses Pun Quotes either way too much or way too little. I'm going to say that they're used way too "little." We need to use "quotation marks" much more often and for "no" apparant reason, "people." Nothing "spices up" an English sentence quite like "the" frequent and ind"is"criminant use of Pun Quotes!

I have one "last" point I feel "obligated" to make today since a couple days ago I linked to a story about "Belgians" taxing barbeque cookouts: There is an "UPDATE" to that "interesting" article.

Basically, it turns out that whole thing was nothing but "lies."