No, that's not some new eye glasses company looking for your business. It's a phonetical way to say the word "biopsy." Now, take a moment, even cheat and look at the word. Now, spell it out loud. See if it stops you short like it did the veteran spelling bee winner at yesterday's Farmin-Stidwell contest. She started the word three times and never could spit it out right.
As she struggled, I watched empathetically, knowing how hard it was to get those letters to dribble out of her mouth in the right order. If you're like me or like this young lady, the "b-i-o" comes easily, but for some reason the word does not cooperate from there.
It's a doozy to put on a spelling list, and it knocked her out of the competition in the first round. Kinda like that "rubber baby buggy bumpers" we used to try to say three times quickly. I never mastered it. Try that one at home!
The contestant was understandably a bit emotionally distraught but handled it well. I saw her after school and sympathized with her about the awkwardness of the word. By that time, she seemed to be taking it in her stride, although sixth grade is not an easy time to tumble when you've been going to district spelling bees with regularity.
I was truly amazed at yesterday's contest, which involved fourth, fifth and sixth graders competing separately. Look out for those Farmin-Stidwell fourth graders! It took 16 rounds to determine a winner. I thought I was going to be standing there until midnight with that group. We finally went to the fifth-sixth grade jar, and after a few more rounds, a winner emerged.
I've been the pronouncer for three years now, and I've never seen a group so well prepared as those fourth graders. I think the same group had the most parents sitting in the back rows. Unlike past years, the officials held the bee in the school computer room rather than the gym. The setting made for less stress for all concerned and a better opportunity to watch facial expressions of both students and parents.
It was the word "apparent" that caused my eyes to dart to the back and watch "a parent" looking at the ceiling and mouthing the letters to himself. He spelled it right. Of course, I couldn't resist giving him a rough time without identifying him. He chuckled as one judge Kathy noted that that's why parents sat behind the kids.
Some parents looked a bit more stressed than the kids. Sound familiar? Oh, by the way, "familiar" was on the list, and one parent noted that they always stick that word on spelling lists. It was spelled correctly every time yesterday, but this parent's daughter forgot to capitalize "Wednesday." I was pleasantly surprised to see how magnanimously both he and his daughter reacted. He seemed to be a big supporter of the event, regardless of how his daughter did. Speaking of which, the sportsmanship among the kids was also impressive.
The best parent reaction came from the mother of one of those phenomenal fourth graders----the winner, in fact. Mom's justifiable pride quickly switched to gasping amazement when, after winning the marathon competition, her daughter announced to everyone within earshot, "I don't want to go to the district contest." Even with Mom's stunned expression, she repeated her shocking announcement. I have a feeling some discussion may have occurred at that household last night.
Speaking of being stunned, I experienced a few surprising moments during my pronouncing duties. While reading sentences and definitions, I ran across three incorrect uses of verb tenses and one misspelling. These appeared on downloaded sheets supplied by the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Seems like they could hire a proofreader and save a little egg on their faces---or is that ayyggg?
I've asked Trish to send me the results for the Winter Carnival adult spelling bee, held last night at Community Hall, but she must not be up yet. If they come, I'll post them, along with Trish's observations, a little later. Bill and I chose to avoid spelling and dig into some Duke's barbecue.
I've finally allowed him to eat there because the service has improved dramatically since that first week when they hadn't quite worked out the glitches yet. It's sitdown ordering from a waitress and real plates. We had a great meal and wonderful service. So, check out Duke's if you haven't been there for a while.
We ran into our usual Friday night diner-outers---Connie and Bill "Bones" Malone. Seems like no matter where we choose to go for Friday meals, the Malones are there. We decided last night, as we've done many times, that one of these Friday's we'll just have to plan to meet and eat together. And, that would be fun.
Other news---what else is new? The ZAGS play today. Go ZAGS!!! And, there are some interesting primaries; wonder if there will be any tears? If so, who will be shedding them?
Happy Saturday.
From Trish Gannon, The River Journal publisher: We, the Keokee team that is, came in second after a very hard fought spelling bee. We were beaten by... tah dah!... Wells Fargo Bank. Yep, a bank won it again.
I realized they deserved to win it when they spelled "hoomalimali." At least, I think that's what they spelled. The judge couldn't pronounce it, but before she even finished trying, their one girl was spelling it out. It was pathetic.
Once it was down to four, I thought no one was ever going to get out. We still had the librarians in, and the Panhandle Alliance, and no one could do wrong it seemed. Billie could probably tell you what words they finally got out on.
We actually beat the bank once. They couldn't spell "schadenfreude." But WE (meaning Cate Huismann) could spell it, and we beat 'em. But then we couldn't spell our next word "charpoy." We spelled it "poi" at the end, then changed it to "poy" but David (Keyes) said we changed to a y after our time was up. So it was back for another couple rounds, and I think we got out on "gourami" but am not sure.
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