A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

AND NOW, THE BATTLE BEGINS IN EARNEST: The spelling wheat has been separated from this year's chaff, and Round 3 has begun, with 286 spellers now reduced to 107 . . . ding!, 106, as the fear of poisons, TAHKS-uh-FO-bee-uh, has infected one of the spellers. Favorites Jonathan Horton and Evan O'Dorney are already through to the next round, as are many Californians.

Follow the spellers and words online, in a round that seems to be on "a college student should figure most of these out" level (beguile, exhilirate exhilarate (!), empiricism), and join us in the comments.

e.t.a. Italian food takes down two victims, as rih-KOTT-uh cheese and mihn-uh-STROWN-ee soup knock out a pair of North Carolinians. Only eight eliminations so far as we leave the 'O' states, as this continues to be a round of Words People Really Use.

e.t.a.: Round 3 is over, and 107 is reduced only to 94, which suggests that Round 4 may be a bloodbath. You'd hate to get jettisoned on a word like "jettison," but it just happened. (Meet George Jettison! Jane, his wife!)

Your challenge is to come up with alternate etymologies and definitions for Round 3 words "Sardoodledom" and "mollycoddle". Round 4 begins at 4:15p, and Samir Patel is now saying, “I’m come in third, I’ve come in second, everything other than first is been there done that.”