A mentor, you probably realize, is a wizened old soul who takes on the vital task of educating a novice.

The name came from an elderly Greek man named Mentor. Odysseus put him in charge of his son Telemachus, when he left for the Trojan wars. These became famous people, the namesakes of the odyssey, the telenovela and a famous condom.

But I digress. Ever since, people have taken advantage of the deep wells ove experience provided by a mentor. Merlin mentored Arthur, Dick Cheney mentored George Bush, Steven Spielberg mentors the world's finest filmmakers.

The alert reader of previous blogs will detect that I really wanted Lacey Brown out of "American Idol." Now she is and I feel silly about it. After her interview with reporters today, I realize there's much that I like about her.

Lots of times, no-surprise is a really good thing. That was the case tonight, when "American Idol" voters sent Lacey Brown home.

I was still recovering from last week -- (see a couple blogs back) -- when Lilly Scott and Katelyn Epperly were wrongly ousted. This time, there was no such shock. Lacey seems like a nice kid with a great hair stylist, but that still doesn't make her tour-worthy or top-10-worthy. Here are a few of my other comments; please add yours:

No one did us any favors by declaring this Rolling Stones week on "American Idol."

This was a wretched night for "American Idol," one that will hurt the rest of the season.

Until tonight, this season was distinguished by the wonderful variety and talent of the women. These weren't just the cookie-cutter cuties we're used to; they had distinctive looks and sounds. And three of them -- Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus and Lilly Scott -- had the feel of indie-rock stardom.

The first two survived tonight, but Lilly -- one of the most interesting contestants the show has had -- was inexplicably voted out.

So it turns out that guys can sing songs, too. After the early weeks of "American Idol," I'd almost forgotten.

In the first two weeks of live shows, we saw 22 performances by guys. Exactly two of them (one by Casey James, the other by Michael Lynche) were memorable. The rest seemed to aspire to adequacy.

At first, tonight's show seemed like more of the same. Lee Dewyze and Alex Lambert were OK, nothing more.

Some "American Idol" choices make an ouster seem inevitable.

Flash back to 2007, when the final nine were suppose to each choose a classic American song. Gina Glocksen chose "Smile." It wasn't until after she'd been ousted, she said, that she realized the emotions involved with saying farewell while singing: "Smile, though your heart is breaking, smile even though it's aching ..."

It's getting easy to tell men from women: On "American Idol," the women are the ones who can sing.

In each of the first two weeks, the guys have managed only one memorable singer -- Casey James last week, Michael Lynche this week. The women, by comparison, bring great cascades of talent.

There was Crystal Bowersox, the day after she'd been hospitalized; she gave a wonderful, gospel kind of feel.

OK, I'm still digesting the news that Jermain Sellers knows he won't be cut from "American Idol" because: "I know God; that's my homeboy."

It doesn't seem fair to line up influential homies. Will someone else counter with Mother Teresa or Jim Morrison? Is that fair to the guy who only has a couple of aunts and his music teacher?

Some old "American Idol" trends crumbled tonight. They included:

1) Latino landslide. Remember 2007, when 42 per cent of the top 12 were Latino? That was the year of David Archuleta, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado and David Hernandez. Maybe that wasn't a coincidence, we figured. Maybe Latinos are especially popular or have a great voting base. Well, maybe not. Tonight, Ashley Rodgriguez and Joe Munoz were two of the first four dumped. By surname, at least, there's only one Latino (Andrew Garcia) left in the top 20.