Bee sting

Spelling bee mania is crisscrossing the country!

“We have always loved to spell,” Richard Johnson, spelling enthusiast and New England native, said. “Its wonderful to see the pass time many of our friends and family have taken for granted finally elevated to the level it deserves.”

Johnson and his wife, Elizabeth Towels, hosted a national spelling bee party during the live June first broadcast of the event on ABC.

“It has been a rough couple of years for spelling purists,” Towels reflected before popping an appetizer (a handful of Alphabets Cereal) into her mouth. “We think that tonight marks the end of spelling ‘fat’ with a ph.”

A topic that has perennially captured the American imagination, the story of the spelling bee seemed doomed to be locked in the same stinky gymnasium from which it emerged with the fall of the made for network TV movie. Luckily the bee keeper has opened up the honeycomb. Several spelling bee documentaries have given way to two honest to goodness Hollywood movies. In an ironical twist one of these movies was based on a book that was written with words that the author had to spell!

Today the spelling bee is gaining respect at the same rate Texas hold ’em tournaments saw several years ago and hot young couples are not blind to this phenomenon.

“Today people take giant steps to avoid playing a friendly game of Scrabble,” Johnson said after watching Katharine Close out spell her opponents to become 2006 national spelling bee champ, “tomorrow they will be paying money to stand up in a room full of judgmental acquaintances and be given challenging words to spell allowed.

The Johnson-towels household will be holding their first spelling bee night next Wednesday at seven thirty. There is a five dollar entrance fee. Though snacks will be provided, Towels informed us that “…the event is bring your own honey.”