Credit: O.KIRK, on panoramio.com
A foulard cerise gladiolus.
Torsion.
Asceticism and deteriorating luxuriance.
Albumen.
Am I stretching my writing wings, trying out a bit of poetry? Not really. The last line probably tells you that something different is going on.
Fourteen-year-old Snigdha Nandipati, from San Diego, won the National Spelling Bee championship yesterday with the word guetapens (a French-derived word meaning... well, you'll have to look it up yourself--I've already forgotten). Congratulations to Snigdha!
Over the previous nine years, these were the words spelled correctly to win the contest:
2003 pococurante
2004 autochthonous
2005 appoggiatura
2006 Ursprache
2007 serrefine
2008 guerdon
2009 Laodicean
2010 stromuhr
2011 cymotrichous
For contrast, my "poem" is constructed of eight of the winning words (minus "a" and "and") from the first ten years of the National Spelling Bee contest, which started in 1925. The two remaining words are fracas and knack; these would have fit awkwardly at best with the others. I can spell all of these words, and I know what they mean.
And if I'd been in a spelling bee in the 1970s, when I was 14, I might have stood a chance with words like cambist, deification, maculature, elucubrate, sarcophagus, psoriasis, Purim, luge, and milieu. Mostly reasonable.
But today? Holy meconium.
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Gerald Andersen
Ann Nichols
femme forte
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Salon.com
Comments
That's sum purdy hi-falutin' writin' thar Rob! Most'a us is still tryin' ta figger out when to use, there, their, and they're. And we's totally stuck on your and you're! Heck, summa us are even confused about are and our!
;-)
.
In a similar vein, a student from our town's middle school went to the final competition in the National Geographic Bee just the other week. Unfortunately, she did not end up being the national champion...it was a student from Texas who carried the day.
{An appoggiatura (Italian, obviously)is an ornamental notation in music, a way to grace line of music. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Appoggiatura
for more, if you are interested.} I could have spelled this by the time I was 15 or so, but not before, and then only because I studied vocal music. And I certainly was unaware of most of the words you've offered up for our perusal here.
I like your poem as well.
Fascinating post!
R
Hey, Julie. I think on average people are probably as literate as ever.
"Obama's main challenge is to bring laodicean voters to the polls."
"Yeah, good luck with that."