Spelling bees, Scholar’s Bowl, and such

Well, that was fun.  We just watched the end of the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee.  A 14-year-old girl named Anamika Veeramani won the Bee by spelling juvia (to advance to the final round), then stromuhr (to win the final round).  Blowing either one of them would have let three contestants back in.  She was ice, baby.

I did those spelling bees, back when they were Scripps Howard, once upon a time.  At eight years old, I was eliminated when I spelled equilateral equalateral.  Two other (later) times, I won my school’s bee and made it onto the radio, and one of those times I was one of the top ten who made it to local television.  There, on channel 40 in Anniston back when it was WHMA, I spelled luculent lukulant, and down I went.

I enjoyed the spelling bee, but I had more fun at Scholar’s Bowl and College Bowl.  Part of that was ego.  For the question/answer game there was a decent chance I was the best player in the room at any given time, and that wasn’t often the case for the bees.

(By the way, at out-of-town tournaments and such, the nerds pawed and swabbed each other every bit as much as the jocks and cheerleaders did.)

I hope you have a good weekend.

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