Spelling Bee

[riflearm2]

I try to watch the finals of this thing every year. These kids are more impressive to me than a 13 year old hitting a 400 foot homerun like Bryce Harper did.

These are the kids our country should really put on a pedestal. They are extremely impressive.

And for the record, I'm taking credit for a kid from my hometown neighborhood winning it last year. Another kid from my neighborhood was one word away from reaching the final ten spellers this year.

 

[MichiganHerd]

 

[MichiganHerd]

 

[ggmike1992]

Why end in a tie? Keep spelling words until somebody screws up. It can't be that damn difficult. I do it all the time.

 

[Walden Pond]

Extremely impressive at something that won't do them much good. Nobody pays you to spell words or work math problems all day like I wish they would.

The big money is all in social graces. That's because you have to fool people into thinking everything is 100 times more difficult than it is. If they knew it was easy, they would do it themselves instead of paying you.

 

[MichiganHerd]

Why end in a tie?

I think it was due to the final two contestants having to depart for the Rubik's cube festival taking place this morning.

 

[riflearm2]

I think it was due to the final two contestants having to depart for the Rubik's cube festival taking place this morning.

The girl who won was actually pretty cute for a teen. If she cared about appearance, she could blossom into something.

And the last two years have been the only ties in 90+ years. They went a long time with the final two. Neither made an error. They exhausted the list of most difficult words. They could have been up there all night and not missed one.

 

[herdfan429]

Why end in a tie? Keep spelling words until somebody screws up. It can't be that damn difficult. I do it all the time.

Because God forbid we hurt someone's feelings if they lose.

 

[-CarlHungus-]

I think for overtime you dip into the internet meme spelling category. It's clear these kids have mastered the Queen's English - now can they get with 4chan slang?

Judge: please spell, "You what, mate?"
Speller: U-W-O-T *space* M-8
Judge: Correct.

 

[Walden Pond]

They'll never again match the entertainment value of when Rebecca Sealfon was in it.

 

[riflearm2]

Because God forbid we hurt someone's feelings if they lose.

And, again, it's the exact opposite of that. The words in the finals are the hardest words in the English language. Forget never having heard them before; I can't even pronounce them.

They simply ran out of words to use. They each went through a ton of absurdly difficult words without an error. C-a-t, though difficult for you, would just be a waste of time for them.

If they wanted everyone to win, they wouldn't have gone 90+ years without this ever happening last year.

 

[herdfan429]

The Merriam Webster dictionary that they use has over 500,000 words. The finals list only has 25 words on it. They could have kept going if they chose to. They could have flipped to a random page in the dictionary and picked a word or two.

 

[riflearm2]

And they've already gone through hundreds (if not thousands) of words over the last few days of the competition. These two kids have already each gone through a dozen of the hardest words possible in the dictionary, not to mention dozens more over the last few days.

You can't repeat words and just pick random ones.

Face it, your comment was stupid and has absolutely nothing to do with why there were co-champions. You think they want to give out $30,000+ more to another co-champion because they want everyone to win, even though they had no problem making a hundred kids just lose?

 

[Walden Pond]

The thing about these kids is you can tell they can do more than just spell words and work math problems. They will be operating on people's brains or making new chemicals. Ones I'd like to sniff.

Bottom line is somehow we're not as smart as them. Could be a hell of a burden being as smart as them, but we'll never know.

 

[MichiganHerd]

Bottom line is somehow we're not as smart as them. Could be a hell of a burden being as smart as them, but we'll never know.

Rifle tries to provide us with the impression that he's as smart as these nerds, but when he chose to go to school in Huntington, WV, that kind of told me he may not be all that intelligent. There just had to be more options out there for a genuinely smart New Yorker. Hell, even folks from the hollers that can't tie their shoes can get into Marshall.

 

[herdfan429]

And they've already gone through hundreds (if not thousands) of words over the last few days of the competition. These two kids have already each gone through a dozen of the hardest words possible in the dictionary, not to mention dozens more over the last few days.

You can't repeat words and just pick random ones.

Face it, your comment was stupid and has absolutely nothing to do with why there were co-champions. You think they want to give out $30,000+ more to another co-champion because they want everyone to win, even though they had no problem making a hundred kids just lose?

Im sorry that you think competitions should end in ties. I dont.

 

[i am herdman]

The key thing is rifle was scoping out the spelling bee for future hot chicks.

 

[riflearm2]

Im sorry that you think competitions should end in ties. I dont.

Quite a leap you made there. Worse, that has absolutely nothing to do with your comment about them just not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings.

 

[riflearm2]

Rifle tries to provide us with the impression that he's as smart as these nerds, but when he chose to go to school in Huntington, WV, that kind of told me he may not be all that intelligent. There just had to be more options out there for a genuinely smart New Yorker. Hell, even folks from the hollers that can't tie their shoes can get into Marshall.

These kids spend a lot of time memorizing spelling (and definitions) and learning origin of words. Memorization helps you gain knowledge, but isn't a necessary link to intelligence.

And, yes, Marshall was the lone school which accepted me. I had a high school transcript full of college credits from Cornell and Syracuse, yet couldn't get into any school except for Marshall.