They Even Cancelled the Spelling Bee
Judge: “Your word is, Antidisestablishmentarianism.”
Contestant: “Uhh… can you use that in a sentence?”
Judge: “Sure… John was against the removal of the Anglican church as the official state church of England, Ireland, and Wales, subscribing to the notion of antidisestablishmentarianism.”
I hope you got your spelling bee fix last year because it’s been cancelled this year because of COVID-19.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee won’t be held as scheduled this year because of the coronavirus.
Scripps announced the decision Friday morning, citing recommendations against large gatherings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ongoing state of emergency in Maryland.
The bee was scheduled to start on May 24 at its longtime venue, a convention center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington.
Scripps said it would try to reschedule the bee for later this year, but it did not commit to a new date. It’s possible the bee won’t be held at all.
Rescheduling would potentially require adjustments to eligibility rules and qualifying. Some local and regional bees have been postponed because of the virus, preventing spellers from qualifying for nationals. And the bee has historically been open to students only through the eighth grade. A bee held this fall would presumably include ninth-graders.
Bummer, although I remember last year they crowned like nine different kids champion at the same time. They kept spelling everything correctly and the contest kept going on and on, so organizers just said “fuck it” and gave everybody the W.
