As we come upon the time of year when people in movies reward themselves for being people in movies, I question the ground they walk on.

Some may worship it, I wonder about it.

Newspapers, television stations, blogs and websites all say these folks walk into the celebrations of themselves on the red carpet.  Which I think begs the question, is it all the same carpet?  Do they haul it from the Golden Globes to the Oscars, from the Emmys to the Tonys, from the MTV awards to the ESPYs?

They all are on “the” red carpet.  It must be one and the same or surely by now someone would say they are standing on “a” red carpet.

It seems as though it is not only the grammatical thing to do, but the ecological thing as well.  Vacuum the damn thing and move on to the next venue.   It’s better to use it again than to roll it up and wait another year while someone else makes an identical red carpet for an almost identical award show.  How many olefin gave their lives to make yet another red carpet? 

And once we’ve pondered that, consider this:  why red?