Asymmetrical Information

crossword? nah, even your kids will say 'that's kinda early 21st century, isn't it, momma-lady?' they won't realize it's older... I dunno where you fell in the divide, but I actually wrote papers on a torture device called a 'type-writer' during college... in fact, I used my grandmother's 1938 smith corona clipper, because it had a dropped p that drove my professors insane... :devil:

I think the spelling bee will always be more relevant than the biathlon though...

Jane,

This is a family blog. Please, don't mention your fetishes any more!

(What do you do with those crosswords...?)

The concept that a word is spelled one way, and one way only, is so 18th century. I blame the dictionaries, myself.

*blink* Horseback riding is very useful-- especially if you eat beef. Horses are much better for moving cattle than 4-wheelers.

Miss Grundy in sixth grade taught me how to spiel. She was a deer.

According to Microsoft Word, there are *NO* errors in the previous paragraph. Somehow I think that spelling is going to remain a required skill for a while longer -- with or without spell-checkers.

I don't understand the argument that spell-checkers make for poor spellers. Yes, you can type away to your heart's content, your screen a mass of red like someone just got shot, and start clicking through afterwards to accept the top offered suggestion. But I can't believe that anyone who regularly has that experience doesn't notice "man, my spelling sucks," and notices what mistakes he commonly makes, and starts correcting it himself.

I suspect that someone who regularly uses a spellchecker tends to improve their spelling over time just because they're continually and immediately confronted with their mistakes.

Spellcheckers that underline as you type are a useful tool. "Autocorrect" is an abomination, as it silently "fixes" what you type into what it thinks you meant. This is bad because it is often wrong, and because you don't learn to do it properly yourself.

If horseback riding is still useful to move cattle, then shooting is still useful to defend stock and family out in the country side - my dear father still has to shoot the occaisional rabid/strange acting possum or raccoon - and we'd shoot a coyote if needed.

Riding is only for sport here (feedlots, not open range cattle).

Dana- Unless they have a VERY large company backing them, my family is one of the thousands that sells them yearlings.

And shooting *is* very useful. It's not on the web, but if you visit Twisp, Washington, ask at the feedstore about the guy that shoot a mountain lion that was crawling up his leg. Generally, we have to shoot dogs, though. (Amazing how many dogs that are "always tied up" end up dead in the field next to the calf they just slaughtered.)

"Just hit "spell check" before sending or printing." And produce a document full of properly spelled malaproprisms, as John W. demonstrated. Spellcheckers make looking for typos easier, but if you can't recognize the properly spelled word when it's on the screen, you're going to pick the wrong word to substitute for the misspelling.

OTOH, spelling and checking a document are visual activities. Spelling bees are an oral activity. I rather wonder how much carries over from one to the other. For me, it doesn't; misspellings just look wrong, but that's little help with reciting the spelling aloud. Not to mention that at regional and higher levels, the difference between the winner and the 10th runner up is words that no one ever uses...

My favorite spelling bee moment happened last year. A kid got a word he obviously didn't know, and started the whole spiel (woohoo, 2 spiels in one thread) of questions they ask to get a clue to the word's spelling. He asked for a sentence, the word's origin, a definition, then he asked, "Can you spell it, please?"

Shoot, I did that at a spelling bee years ago, but it was only at the local district level, so a rapt TV audience didn't get to see it.

Watched the last half hour of the Bee last night. Those middle schoolers are too bloody smart. (Although I did like how the winner made his ABC interviewer look like an idiot by giving honest answers to dumb questions...)

...the most remarkable aspect of this 'Spelling Bee' is the overwhelming media coverage that this trivia still gets in the 21st Century.

There were 'cute' Bee-reports on every network & cable news program this past week, including prime time "news".

WHY (??)

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