Spellbound: I went to a spelling bee the other night, my very first. I was surprised at how entertaining it was. I can see why it was so popular in nineteenth century America. And, like the movie, Spellbound, many of the kids were immigrants - Egyptians, East Indians, Central Americans - most of whom live in families where English is not the first language. (I know this because a lot of them are my patients.)

It's amazing how similar so many of our words are. Watching (or listening to) that spelling bee made me realize how difficult it must be to learn our language. One child (born to the language) went down when he spelled "beating" for "beading" and many more went down when they confused words ending with "-man" and "-men." And my own son? His Italian grandfather will be grieved to hear that "polenta" took him down.