Quinquennalia indeed!

I said it before and I'll say it again, spelling bees are a joke!

All of the words I've been hearing are words that no intellectual would ever use in a month of Sundays. Why should people have to learn words that they would never, ever have to use outside a spelling bee?

There are plenty of tough words that are around us every day - or at least, around college level readers - that would serve just as well, and which it would be of some benefit to learn.

And I"m not just saying that because I don't know ANY of these words! The only word I've recognized so far, let alone been able to spell,  in an hour of listening,was CARYYATID.

Still, there's a monetary prize at the end of this (I mean, the spelling bee I'll be attending in August) so it's worth it to try, and good practice for next year. But really!

The commentators are giving tips to the viewing audience, which I do find helpful. For example, if you're supposed to spell a name that is a suit of armor, but comes from the Greek, then you know that the "f" sound in it will be "ph" as in CATAPHRACT.

So there are spellings of sounds that are unique to each language - French, German, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Greek, Latin, etc. etc. so if you have no clue what a word means, if you know from what language it comes, you can try to spell it by knowing what letters they use to make certian sounds.

Still, I am not sanguine for my chances for August.

CANELONE.

I've always pronounced it caneloni....

Oh, wow, I was so off. CANNELON.

Phui!.