::FLIP DA SCRIPPS::

Today at lunch, I watched portions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at Twisted Root Burger Company. Only since the volume was off, I followed the action via closed-captioning. They supplanted the spelling words with "[WORD]" in the captions. Multiple pronunciations were listed as "[WORD], [WORD], and [WORD]."

You know, so deaf people can't cheat.

It made for a great game: guess the word by the definition and language of origin! It would be a Spelling Eeb!

(Only on the way out the door did I realize that ESPN actually did list the words, down by the news ticker.)