S-M-A-R-T-Y-P-A-N-T-S

Do you know what "autochthonous" means? Well, maybe David Tidmarsh doesn't know either, but the 14-year-old kid from Indiana sure could spell it.

I am here to tell you that spelling bees--and spellers--are rad. I won my schoolwide bee* in sixth grade, and just look at how cool I am.

Nine out of ten spelling-bee champs recommend the following**:

1. The Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be surprised at how nervous you can get watching a bunch of little kids trying to spell a bunch of big words.


2. Myla Goldberg's outstanding novel Bee Season (movie forthcoming for those not word-inclined).


3. The film Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Circuit. I am quite A-N-X-I-O-U-S (Woo-woo, seven-tile word!) to see this.

* Ten points to anyone who knows the word that knocked me out of the city bee. Extra credit if you know how I (mis)spelled it.

** According to the Hairyalien Institute for Statistics that Should Indeed Exist (HISSIE)

Posted by Arin at June 3, 2004 02:25 PM