DemonLlama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2000
- Messages
- 4,021
I was in an adult team Spelling Bee last night for charity. I was part of a team of three representing our junior college and all three of us were English faculty (read: spelling geeks). The other teams were made up of bankers, lawyers, high school teachers, the local newspaper, the phone company, etc.
We go through three rounds, no problem, softball words. Only one team has dropped out by this point, the words are so easy. I'm still nervous, though, and tell my teammates to take the mike on the fourth round, but they are being ultra-supportive and encourage me to at least hear the word before deciding whether or not to spell it.
The word is PSYCHE. Another softball, and, just like we rehearsed, I calmly spell it for my teammates. (We have 20 seconds before we have to start spelling for the judges.) P-S-Y-C-H-E. I stand up and speak into the mike "P-S-Y-C-H-E" and realize the mike is NOT ON.
So I fluster around with the mike, get it on, and say very quickly "P-H-Y-C-H-E" without even hearing myself pronounce the wrong letter. My first clue was when one of my teammates gasped.
GONG
Second team gone is the college English geeks, thanks to me.
We sat there listening to the rest of the teams flub words we had studied and knew how to spell, and they got to the killer words soon after my screw up, some of which the pronouncer wasn't even able to pronounce WITH phonetic help
and we were STILL getting them right. The teams had mulligans to pass on lots of these words, and until they used those up, there wasn't a whole lot of spelling going on, except at our table, where we kept ripping through them.
I am SUCH a loser.
I just keep thinking about how many hours we put in, and how well we could have done if I hadn't been so nervous. My brilliant
teammates were so gracious and sweet, but all night in half-
sleep I kept hearing P-H-Y-C-H-E.
The final-two-teams round required one team to be able to spell two words in a row correctly, which FINALLY ended up being "chartreuse" and "miscreant" because they had to go back to easier stuff on the list.
The VP of the college, my academic dean, lots of other college faculty and administration were there to cheer us on, and every single one of them tried to make me feel better, but I'm still just shaking my head this morning at my screw-up.
We go through three rounds, no problem, softball words. Only one team has dropped out by this point, the words are so easy. I'm still nervous, though, and tell my teammates to take the mike on the fourth round, but they are being ultra-supportive and encourage me to at least hear the word before deciding whether or not to spell it.
The word is PSYCHE. Another softball, and, just like we rehearsed, I calmly spell it for my teammates. (We have 20 seconds before we have to start spelling for the judges.) P-S-Y-C-H-E. I stand up and speak into the mike "P-S-Y-C-H-E" and realize the mike is NOT ON.
So I fluster around with the mike, get it on, and say very quickly "P-H-Y-C-H-E" without even hearing myself pronounce the wrong letter. My first clue was when one of my teammates gasped.
GONG
Second team gone is the college English geeks, thanks to me.
We sat there listening to the rest of the teams flub words we had studied and knew how to spell, and they got to the killer words soon after my screw up, some of which the pronouncer wasn't even able to pronounce WITH phonetic help
and we were STILL getting them right. The teams had mulligans to pass on lots of these words, and until they used those up, there wasn't a whole lot of spelling going on, except at our table, where we kept ripping through them.I am SUCH a loser.
I just keep thinking about how many hours we put in, and how well we could have done if I hadn't been so nervous. My brilliant
teammates were so gracious and sweet, but all night in half-
sleep I kept hearing P-H-Y-C-H-E.
The final-two-teams round required one team to be able to spell two words in a row correctly, which FINALLY ended up being "chartreuse" and "miscreant" because they had to go back to easier stuff on the list.
The VP of the college, my academic dean, lots of other college faculty and administration were there to cheer us on, and every single one of them tried to make me feel better, but I'm still just shaking my head this morning at my screw-up.
