My co-workers and I love watching the Spelling Bee and did so on Friday afternoon. How enjoyable is it to see children spelling words that none of us will probably use in a sentence during our lifetime?
We've even become familiar with some of the contestants. This year, we rooted for Tia Thomas and Matthew Evans, who were returning veterans. We remembered them from previous years.
Thomas, who advanced to the final three, was eliminated in Round 13 after incorrectly spelling the word opificer (epificer). Oh, she was so close! She lost to eventual champion Sameer Mishra, who correctly spelled the word guerdon to win the whole thing.
Mishra was funny and had a great personality. You can't help but wonder if all these kids do is lock themselves in a room and study the dictionary all day long. So when one displays a sense of humor, it makes us feel a little more at ease knowing that they do indeed have a life outside of the dictionary..
It's one thing for a kid to spell an impossible word, but it's even more impressive to see that they can crack a joke while nervously trying to come up with the correct version of the word. Oh the pressure they're under. It makes for great television.
I was proud that I heard of the word schnecke, which was spelled correctly by Zachary Zagorski in Round 5. I heard that word a lot growing up in Milwaukee, Wisc. My older German relatives used to refer to pastry as such. Heard of it, I say. If you asked me to spell it, I would have done so as follows: s-c-h-n-e-c-k, which is how we pronounced it in the Bromberg household back in the day.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to next year's event.