Cite?
The Chicago Manual of Style (the whole thing isn’t online, but in this FAQ, look for “Q. Apparently Americans enclose periods commas inside quotation marks, but do the British do it that way too???”), the Associated Press Stylebook (only searchable online by subscribers), and, I have no doubt, many, many others.
And, of course, Hyperelastic, friedo, Jinx, Polycarp, and me!
In this example, we see how quotes have become misapplied to imply a second meaning or pun. Technically, according to rules of puncutation, alternate uses of a word, or puns, do not require quotes. (This would drive my English teacher up a wall.) But, colloquially (sp?), it is done as a choice of style to show emphasis.
Some people overuse the quotes. Forgetting that words have multiple meanings, they place too many words in quotes…as if they’ve invented a whole new meaning for all these words… So, use quotes sparingly. - Jinx
Jinx is right about the misuse of quotation marks. Although it is very common, I dislike this usage, too.
While we’re picking nits, the OP is, of course, a punctuation question, not a grammar question.
And we still don’t know why it’s embarrassing.
Using quotation marks around a single word is supposedly a means of distancing the speaker from the term, as in “The ‘students’ were protesting…” – meaning that the people called themselves, or were termed by the media, students, but that the speaker himself does not believe them to be properly so identified. It’s equivalent to using “so-called” prior to the word.
It can be neutral in connotation, as in “Tangerines are often called ‘oranges.’” In this instance, the writer is suggesting that he uses a narrow definition of “oranges” that does not include tangerines, but that people of good repute using a broader definition consider tangerines to be one variety of orange.
The bizarre popular usage that appears to be founded on the idea that quotation marks simply provide emphasis is without support in good writing. “‘Tomatoes’ – 99c/lb.” is simply illiterate – unless the grocer is subtly suggesting that while those red things he’s selling for 99 cents a pound were called “tomatoes” by the produce wholesaler, he himself doesn’t consider them worthy of the term.