130 - The Spell-Off
This piece was written after the conclusion of the 2022 Scripps Spelling Bee.
One of the very few “sports” I enjoy watching is the annual spelling bee.
2022 was unique for two reasons. It was the first time in 27 years the Bee was not televised on ESPN, for which I was grateful because that meant it was broadcast on regular TV and I didn’t have to fudge some kind of streaming service to watch it, as I don’t pay for ESPN, and it had the first spell-off to determine the winner.
The final two competitors had both survived 18 rounds so each was given 1:30 to spell correctly as many words as they could. Texan Harini Logan won with 21 words (her competitor, Vikram Raju, only managed 15). The words she was given were:
She misspelled three of them over the course of her rapid-fire 1:30.
This years Bee is from May 27-29
I love it when a tune you publish makes me this happy.
Also, I am entirely unfamiliar with these words! I would hear them wrong, spell them wrong. I once bought a book called, "I always look up the word Egregious" a short book introducing helpful but forgotten words.