2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | May 28, 2009 |

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | May 28, 2009 |

It’s Thursday night, and everything is in re-runs. But for “So You Think You Can Dance,” none of the new summer shows have begun. So if you’re at home with nothing to do, I can’t impress upon you enough how unreal it is to watch a bunch of 8th graders spell words you’ve never heard of in your life. Tonight is the final: It’s on ABC. Switch it over. Now. You won’t regret it. And if you’ve ever seen Spellbound, you’ll understand (and if you havent’ seen it, Netflix it).

And though you can’t really play along at home (they provide the word beneath the screen), I’m hoping that, by having an open thread, I can encourage a few of you to watch. And if it’s not your thing, you can always reel off your own humiliating spelling bee stories. Most of us have participated at some point. I won my classroom bee only to get knocked out in the school-wide competition on the first word: Groggy, a word I’d never heard of in the 7th grade. I think I spelled it g-r-o-g-y. And that mean buzzer nearly made me cry. It was nice to know, however, that even the least athletic among us could spectacularly fail at something.

Watch it. Discuss. Have your mind blown away by these incredible socially maladjusted kids.