Reason Enough to Stay Home on a Friday!

I probably would not have even known the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee was on television tonight if Mum hadn't arrived today. We had a nice dinner and sat down to watch television in a desultory fashion, catching up on a million things being the primary focus.



But then it got funny. I'm sure it will be on Youtube before the end of the week, but it was hysterical to watch live.



In case you aren't a spelling bee aficionado, here is how it works. As each speller comes to the front of the stage to hear their word, their name and statistics are shown on the screen. After the word has been pronounced, it eventually appears on the screen.



So the next contestant shuffled up to the microphone stand and was given the word -- wait for it -- numbnut.



My mother and I looked at each other and simultaneously said, "did he just say Numbnut?" From the confusion on the kid's face, it was clear that he had heard the same thing. He asked for it to be repeated and again, we all heard it -- NUMBNUT. So he started the endless round of allowed questions (part of speech? origin? use it in a sentence? am I pronouncing it right?) until finally, the moderator pronounced it really clearly and the screen revealed the word was actually NUMNAH.



This time we all heard it and the contestant said, "Oh, NUMNAH, I thought you said Numbnut!" The audience finally let loose with a big guffaw.



He spelled it right -- and later said he was glad the word wasn't numbnut as he wouldn't have known how to spell it.



Pure comedy, people -- you don't even want to know how they used huapango in a sentence.



Tell all your single friends, a numnah is a saddle blanket.




XO, JamieSmitten

UPDATE! Numbnut just won!!!!!