ROUND THREE: We're up and running with Round 3 of the Bee. Only 24 hours until the Canadian bloodbath!
10:34/1:34: Laura Newcombe is two-for-two in the oral rounds, with the relatively easy "efficacy." But how would she have done with her predecessor's name, "Anoufrieva"? (Isaac)
11:00/2:00: Poor Skye Merriam. The unbearable pressure of that last name. I would have checked in under a pseudonym, like Christopher Combee. (Isaac)
11:25/2:25: It is possible to misspell lagniappe by more letters than what a speller just did, but you'd have to get the l-a wrong too. I'm not watching the video feed right now, but that just hurt to read, and makes me sad. (Adam)
11:28/2:28: I have to say, it still just looks weird when Olathe, Kansas spells a word incorrectly. (Isaac)
12:18/3:18: I feel terribly for the kids who've erred twice before the microphone. It's a new form of embarrassment which didn't exist before this iteration of the Bee format. I think I'd rather they have a longer written exam, one guaranteed preliminary round before the microphone in the morning, and then start the next round after lunch with the top hundred spellers. Hmm. (Adam)
1:02/4:02: Ah, "kuru" makes an appearance, knocking "sabermetric" out of first on my list of my favorite Bee words of all time. Neither is difficult to spell, and I love my baseball statistics, but the Madagascan spongiform encephalopic disease that became Mad Cow to the rest of us has a special place in my heart. (Isaac)
1:51/4:51: And on the day of ALOTT5MA Fave Shaquille O'Neal's retirement announcement, someone with the first name of "O'Neal" gets braggadocio wrong. We live in an ironic and unkind universe. (Adam)
1:58/4:58: Saboteur, ipecac, pantomime, all in a row. Has Dr. Jacque Bailly gone soft? (Adam)
