Elli and I were almost late getting out of the house this morning. Usually this happens when one of us poops in our pants right as we're getting ready to leave. Today was a bit a different story, though.

We were watching tv.

The obvious question is what were we watching at 9:30 am. I'll give you a hint. It was a sporting event. Ok. Maybe not a sporting event, but it was on ESPN for three hours. It'll be on in prime time on ABC tonight for another two hours.

If you guessed the National Spelling Bee, you are the million dollar winner for the day. Five hours of coverage today. That's crazy. The NBA conference finals don't even get run on network tv these days. And yet, today the Spelling Bee takes center stage and thursts bookworms into the national spotlight. I'm sure that's gotta be good for the adolescent psyche.

Actually, I'm glad we can celebrate the smart kids. They deserve some recognition. At the same time, I wouldn't be crushed if Elli never makes it to the finals of this particular competition. It's just so much pressure. And in the end, there has to be quite a bit of luck involved. The words these kids get are so crazy and obscure that you could make a very very educated guess and still get knocked out.

You know who has to be crazy smart? The main judge. Granted, his job is a little easier because he has all of the answers in front of him, but he still has to be hecka smart to be able to pronounce all of the words correctly. He is a PhD for crying out loud.

Just for fun I decided to spell along as Elli and I watched. Unfortunately, I went zero-for-five.

Fair Dinkum