I love that Spelling Bees are still part of school, so it was great to read about the Cascade County Spelling Bee the other day.
Jackson Maheau, a sixth-grader at Chief Joseph Elementary School, won first place at the bee when he spelled “fungible” correctly. He had just spelled “carpogenous” before that. Maheau stayed cool when other contestants clearly were too nervous to spell well.
Too nervous…boy, does that bring some memories flooding back. Way back in 8th grade, in California, I went to the Kern County championship in Bakersfield, representing my school and district, and was eliminated in…you guessed it…the first round. The word: HEARTBURN. Seriously. I choked on the word “heartburn.” Maybe the pressure of being filmed for the local news was just too much for me;I began spelling it “H…E…R…A…” and then paused, realized what I had done, and said, “…oh, wow, bummer…” D’oh! Best wishes to Jackson Maheau in the state finals!
If it makes you feel better, I got bounced out in my spelling bee (4th grade) on the word broccoli. Seriously.
Have you seen the new Oscar Mayer commercial?
I got eliminated in the second round of my fifth-grade bee on “acceptance.”
“E…X…” BZZZZZT!
6th grade: coup
5th grade: adjutant -> agitant