Dinner Reading About a Poll?

When I sat down to dinner last night (Pizza! From Pizza Hut! Yum!), I had one hand free since we all know having pizza is a one-handed affair ... you just roll up a slice lengthwise and shove it in your mouth, putting it down every now and then to swig from your canned soda (or beer, if you are so inclined).

That leaves one hand to hold reading material. So I grabbed a sports section of the morning paper. I found out later it was a week old, but that's beside the point.

Anyway ... I saw a story inside, on Page 2 of last Saturday's Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports section, that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson had earned a ... a poll. That seemed odd. Since when does a person earn a poll? I mean, you take a poll, you're questioned for a poll, but I've never heard of anyone EARNING a poll.

Well, it turns out that Jimmie Johnson won the POLE position at Phoenix International Raceway by breaking the lap trial mark with a new track record of 139.222 miles per hour. Now that's fast.

So he didn't earn a POLL ... he earned a POLE position.

I wonder if the headline writer had enough sleep the night before. Poor guy/gal. If s/he worked for me when I was an editor, s/he wouldn't be working for me any more. So unprofessional.