Well said and to add to the name menagerie, I have always called them Join Tables since they join one entity to another.

For those who think this is "bad design", the world is filled with many-to-many relationships that need to be represented in the architecture of many databases. I'm with you on this point.

As for the "n00b"ness of the article, I have no problem with that since I would think n00bs would turn to a publication such as this for part of their learning experience. I do think the title was an unfortunate choice, and save the redundant key, it was right on target for someone trying to learn the fundamentals of good design.