Spelling bees in America...

[BlooInBloo]

Sheesh.



From:

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/See_anything_wrong_in_this_Spelling_Bee_photo_3


EDIT: Broken link.

[Goblinmonger]

1. Nice

goes to show you that spelling and editing are two different things.

[Redstone]

2. Spell check, anyone?

Redstone

[tomreedtoon]

3. On prime-time TV. What's next? Mah Jong?

Everyone knows that the winners of spelling bees, as Gallager once wisely said, are "always introverted ugly little girls." So when is the winner of this year's match going to get his sex change and get hit in the face repeatedly with a skillet?

[Berry Cool]

4. Dear tomreedtoon,

I'm sorry to hear you're a bad speller.

Love,

One of those "introverted ugly little girls" who used to kick the ass of people like you in spelling every year, and go on to the city finals, and it was the only time the whole damn school ever cheered for ME instead of for some athlete.

[MedleyMisty]

5. Introverted ugly little girls ftw! (for the win)

My school spelling bee record was 5-1, and I was runner-up the year I lost.

Always choked at the county bee.

By the way, what's wrong with being introverted?

[tomreedtoon]

9. What's wrong? Nothing that body casts won't fix.

Introverted, basically, means you become a punching bag. Psychological for girls, physical for boys. I know. I lived that life.

[tomreedtoon]

10. How much did you pay the "whole school" to cheer you?

NOBODY, besides obsessive and controlling parents, attends spelling bees. They never even held them in school in Missouri in the 1960's. Ask anyone whether they'd rather watch a spelling bee, or watch a bartender mop up vomit and blood after a bar fight, and Joe the Bartender will win 95 percent of the time.

And the only reason ABC ran this one is that the network was cheap, and couldn't compete against the shows on CBS, NBC and Fox. They could have run a security camera at a Wal-Mart and gotten better ratings.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Nnnnnnnnerds Nerds NERDS NERDS NERDS!!!!

It is kinda funny how the whole country patronizes these poor kids for that one week, pretending that they're anything but kinda freakish little weirdos. God love 'em, really, but damn. The force is strong in these ones, if you follow.

A guy in my JHS won the New York City Spelling Bee when I was there. This guy was way beyond nerd, nerd to the nth power. I ended up going to the same high school, and he never changed, was always that guy. I felt bad, as you feel bad for the painfully shy and socially awkward.

But I guess we should let them have their platform, their day in the sun, even if it is a kind of make believe, with painted on smiles, pats on the head, and sidelong glances.

[Sanctified]

7. Whats that guy doing today?

My cousin was like that, the kid could not get a break, tall lanky kid that stuttered and was brilliant but had no social skills. He went to College and got a PHD and now has a pretty nice gig at Intel, a beautiful wife, a pimp little home in Portland's Hawthorne District and some pretty cool friends although they are all way smarter than me.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. That's the big myth: that all the nerds grow up to be rockstars

It's just something you say to make the nerds feel better.

I suspect that most of them grow up to be just as awkward and unsettled in their own skin as they always were. You don't grow sociality overnight, or in college.