I'm kind of fascinated with spelling bees. Not just because I had my own trauma inducing run-in with the craze that's sweeping the nation. (Full disclosure: In 3rd grade, I went out on the word "magician." If I remember correctly, I spelled it m-a-g-i-t-i-a-n. Like you care.) But I also loved the movie Spellbound (not be confused with the Alfred Hitchcock classic), which follows the lives of eight teenage Nerds (with a capital N, and applied lovingly a group I consider myself a part of) as they cram and cry and crack in preparation for the 1999 season of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The other night, the wifey-to-be and I were flipping around, and found the finals of the Bee airing. They were just coming back from commercial break, and the announcer said something like, "And the kids tonight have had to spell words like "Numbnut."" Whaaaa'?! I seriously replayed those 3 seconds, like, 20 times to see if my ears deceived me. Then I busted out my dictionary (yes, they still make those) and searched for a word that, you know, SOUNDED like numbnut, cause I just couldn't believe they'd make the kids spell that. Nothing. Internet search - nothing. I went to bed certain that next year's crop of nerdlets would have to spell "Dickwad." Then I found this:
Phew.
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