Picture America Lies About Its Spelling Ability
Really Mississippi? You probably can't even spell "Mississippi."
Picture Correct Spelling Not a Requirement at the Spelling Bee
"Language of origin?" "Soouth American."
News 14 Year-Old Wins National Spelling Bee by Correctly Spelling "LOL"
Tompkins' winning spelling came after 25 rounds in which spellers were given traditionally difficult Spelling Bee words without success, then easier two-syllable words and, finally, simple, one-syllable words such as "cat," "go" and "me". But America's best and brightest students failed on every attempt.
"I am so embarrassed for our country," said Jacques Bailly, the competition's official word pronouncer. "I wish it wasn't televised and broadcast throughout the world. Now everyone knows how stupid we are."
The competition was almost won in the 23rd Round when the word list was dumbed down to two-syllable words. Mark Peerman of New Jersey was given the word "hater" and spelled it "h-8-r". After huddling for several minutes, judges decided to not give him credit.
"At that point we still had some hope and we didn't want to be reduced to accepting a word with a number in it as the winning attempt," said Bailly. "What really sealed my decision was when we were discussing our ruling and I looked up and the kid was picking his nose and eating his boogers while stupidly giggling to himself."
