Posted on Tuesday 23 May 2006
When I was 10 or 11, I participated in a city-wide championship spelling bee. The “bee” contestants were all “winners” from their schools or school districts and it’s been quite a long time, but I think there were probably 100 or so of us in the competition. That’s the truth of the story. I spelled a bunch of hard words in a row and got to go to the big meet. (Once a word-nerd, always a word-nerd.)
Now for the humility footnote: I missed my very first word – and it was only five letters long. I could have spelled “xylophone” or “prestidigitator” – but they didn’t ask me those words. They asked me to spell “easel.” And I did: e-a-s-l-e. At the time I was also taking art lessons and painting on an e-a-s-e-l once a week. The judge leaned into the microphone, said “that is incorrect,” and I went to my seat duly embarrassed. Five letters.
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