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Friday, June 2, 2006

America Wins Spelling Bee! America Wins Spelling Bee!

Posted by on June 2 at 7:44 AM

So last night was the first ever primetime television Scripps National Spelling Bee — which was, of course, AWESOME, and could only be improved upon by making all the kids live together in one house with a case of liquor. However! For reasons that are still galling to me, they actually let a CANADIAN participate in this classically AMERICAN competition which is HORSESHIT, I’m sure you’ll agree. And that little Canuck almost won! Thank god for the word “weltschmerz” or 14-year-old Toronto native Finola Mei Hwa Hacket (who I will agree was nerdy cute) would’ve won the whole shebang. Although it is ironic that a Canadian was defeated in an AMERICAN competition by a German word. Finally! Those krauts are good for something!
Anyhoo, big ups to New Jersey gal and AMERICAN, 13-year-old Katharine Close for bringing home the spelling gold with the word “ursprache” — which originally meant “parent language” and now has a new meaning. U…S…A! U…S…A! U…S…A!

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Up yours, Canada!


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I've got quite a case of weltschmerz over all the strange words ... apparently German is the ursprache. I imagine the English-only crowd has got their panties in a twist this morning.

Wait, a German word, basically made up by Jean Paul, used to defeat the Canadian?

That seems highly dubious.

I mean, who has used weltschmerz in the last 50 years??

Know if it were welshrat, I might understand...

JIN-GO-I-SM! :clap clap clapclapclap:

ha ha I can't spell!!

Hey Jingo your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind. Hey Jingo! :clapclap clapclap: Hey Jingo! :claplap clapclap:

Finola is proof that cute girls can't spell.

Oh, that's horseshit! They've been having our National Grammar Rodeo at the Sheraton Hotel in Canada for years! Let the Canadians have a shot! They'd go out in the first round with "Color" or "Center" anyways.

Who else got sick of the constant commercials?

Two words and then to commercial. Then a profile of a finalist. Then two words. Commercial.

Probably would've been over in half the time without all that shit.

The final three were all cute girls -- Kerry, Finola and Saryn all made me proud with their big brains and overall adorableness. And what about that Raj? What a little bad ass. And did anyone notice that that little Nidharshan looks a lot like what Sayid from Lost would have looked like as a boy.

I L-O-V-E love the spelling bee.

Meanwhile in China a classroom of 12 year olds are working through differential equations. It's some sort of poetic irony really that it came down to foriegn words, given that most americans are by design language retards.
Weltschmertz is even kind of a practical word these days. Another would be Militärdiktatur, or maybe Totalitäresystem, or even Schachsinnigepräsidentschaft.

oh come on seattle98104. it's clapclap clap. don't you kids know anything!


and speaking of patriotism, what where they doing putting GERMAN words into the AMERICAN spelling bee! that girl should have been spelling appel pye!

There were more than Canadians in the bee. I think it's open to all english-speaking countries. There were also participants from places like American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, Jamaica, NZ, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.

Why do they still call it the National Spelling Bee?

At least it wasn't Staatsangehorigkeit. Now there's a german word.

That was the best thing on the networks in over 20 years. Nerds rule!

If one of the words was "color" would the Canadians (or other Commonwealth competitors) be able to spell it "colour" and have it count?

There were also participants from places like American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, Jamaica, NZ, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.

Why do they still call it the National Spelling Bee?

I think we annexed those nations. :rimshot:

Three cheers for American world domination! We here in Canada feel so completely humbled and humiliated that one of our own could only come in second in such a prestigious (national?) competition. Today, spelling. Tomorrow, geography. Finola is not from Toronto, as you say, but from Tofield, a small town in Alberta...only several thousand miles from Toronto. But who cares, eh? It's not anywhere in the States! It's like saying a Texan is from the suburbs of New York (I'm assuming you know where Texas and New York are?!).

I'm waiting for the first ever international text messaging spelling bee. Wouldn't that be gr8?

Great post!

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