To Bee or not to Bee

     Every year before June rolls around our country holds statewide spelling contests with Semantics students in every participating city in the U.S. I found out that this was the 79^th year of Colorado’s participation in the competition. A regional competition was held at D.U.s Sturm Hall back on March 16^th. Only the best spellers of these state contests make it through the preliminaries to compete in Washington, D.C. each year so those who made it to the 94^th annual National Spelling Bee (567 in all) are quite adept in perfect spelling. Four of ours were Maria Ciobanu, Bryson Browning, Cameron Keith from Boulder and Lauren Guo from Arvada. The last two are from suburban Denver and they made it to Washington, D.C. but were eliminated after passing the first round.  

     I’m sure many people think of spelling contests as a superfluous or even superficial intellectual competition and that their time could be better spent but I totally disagree with that opinion, however much it may prevail. Let’s just say that I happen to believe that anyone who understands the importance of great spelling will transfer that love of perfection and conscientious work to their lives in the future.

     To expound on this, great spelling could be eventually transferred to the quest to find a cure for all cancer, and comprehensive programs for gun control, eliminating world hunger and disease prevention. My vision is not grandiose but it is full of hope and possibilities- which are endless. So I feel that the Bee deserves our rapt attention and support.

     On the morning of Thursday, May 30^th almost all of a total twenty rounds had came down to the remaining sixteen 12 to 14 year old kids. The Scripps-Howard Bee is a competition which employs extremely obscure or even foreign language words which have been adopted into the American English language. Some of our idiomatic spellings of English words trip up the average speller in the U.S. so the difficulties are often profound. Our National Spelling competition is open internationally so this year it started with 11 million applicants! Many of the top spellers come from families in which it is possible that English may not be their primary language but it appears that this is not an inhibiting factor to their scholarship. This was the case for last year’s sole winner of the Bee, Karthik Nemmani.

     Having been a Semantics student myself at a time when this course was taken for a period of two years (four semesters) at Junior High level (now Middle School and the Freshman year of High School). I have been a fan of watching these bees for the sheer enjoyment of it, believe it or not. When I was that age and studying the origins of words along with the rest of the Semantics students, we culled our subject directly from the current dictionaries published at the time. I was discouraged away from using the Funk and Wagnall’s and American Heritage Dictionary by my instructor but still prefer them to this day. However, we were encouraged to own as many different types of dictionaries as possible. Availability, especially foreign language dictionaries, was limited. Internet access has made many foreign languages much more easily available. My most recent purchase from the internet was a tiny guide on the Hawaiian language and is very good for showing how easy it is to learn! Promise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_4XNXu-qDM

      At any rate, I watched the 20^th and last round of the finals this year and the coordinators of the session ran out of time and words! It was scheduled locally, for me, on ESPN and was only supposed to run for two hours and it recorded for another half hour but that was not the end of the competition. It certainly wasn’t time sufficient enough to cover the viewing clear up to the end! Because they also ran out of words that were planned we had a decision which included multiple winners of the Bee. Eight competitors wound up winning the bee, simultaneously, each garnering a trophy and $50,000! As far as I know, this was a first multiple win in its 94 year history!

for more information check out

www.spellingbee.com

 

Poetic to the Point of Being Psychic?

I have a bit of an odd tale about one of Seamus (pronounced, Shame-us) Heaney's poems, which is the first poem in his book titled Human Chain. My friend in Ireland sent me this book as a gift in November of 2013 and it arrived on November 26th- within the same month that an Aunt of mine-my favorite Aunt, no less!- passed away and a little more than a year after my Mum's passing. 
On the 25th of November, just the day before, I had a weird experience. I had walked into my mother's room at the same time that I suddenly heard what sounded like a waterfall against one of her windows and immediately thought that I was hearing a sudden violent rainstorm but as I looked out the other window I could see that the late afternoon was still sunny and no rain had hit that window. It was dry and clear. 

The sound was deafening for only a moment- like that of wind and rain- and it continued but I suddenly felt the urge to go out and investigate. 
As I came out the side door to my house I saw leaves violently hitting the bricks against the house and then they suddenly quit. I looked around and there were no leaves any where else. I neared the window to get a closer look and found that one leaf had lodged itself into a space between two bricks. I couldn't reconcile the sound I heard with what I saw but I was left to think about this for only a day.
When the book arrived from my friend the next day and I saw that it was poetry I opened it immediately and read the first poem. The following is the poem, titled, 'Had I not been awake'.

Had I not been awake I would have missed it,

A wind that rose and whirled until the roof

Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore

And got me up, the whole of me a-patter,

Alive and ticking like an electric fence:

Had I not been awake I would have missed it,

It came and went so unexpectedly

And almost it seemed dangerously,

Returning like an animal to the house,

A courier blast that there and then

Lapsed ordinary. But not ever

After. And not now.

I've always told people that some of my poems are prophetic because my poems written as a teenager were actually outside my scope of experience, at times, and then I would experience what I'd written later. This episode with Seamus' poetry really grabbed my attention and I urge one and all to take a look at his poetry. He passed away in a Dublin hospital in August of that year himself at the age of 74 and is seriously missed as an international poet who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. Please give this man's poetry a look as we all need to listen to our prophets as much now as ever. 

Dihunamb,

The Castle Lady

 

Oh, if he only had a brain...

   Max Boot, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently put in a bid in his column to explain briefly why he has officially switched his party affiliation from republicanism to being a democrat with conservative leanings. He explained very succinctly his reasons in his article how Trump has disillusioned his far-back reaching political leanings to the time when Lincoln was in office! It doesn’t get more GOP than that, you know and I’m sure his forthcoming book, “The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right” explains in further detail about his background and why he is certain he has made the right decision.

     I have noted a few things Boot mentioned which I feel are more than potent reasons why Trump should not remain in the presidential office. These were: constant rampant conflicts of interest, the alienation of America’s allies (a big issue to me) and last but not least- the appeasement of dictators. He wrote more than a few words about the unconscionable decision to separate undocumented immigrants from their children upon arrest and deportation of the adults. I agreed with everything Boot wrote and would add something of great interest to the general public. (More about that at the conclusion…)

     The fact that Trump does not speak for the majority of Americans wishes is all too obvious. If marches are any indication he should be ashamed of his record of angering nearly every American in the U.S. This man cannot even agree and be civil with our long time and more recent allies. When Putin tells me they didn’t do it I’d believe him over Trump any day. This Russian president has been quite clear and direct about it but has not offered any help in finding the true perpetrators but that is probably because Trump’s bullishness and outrageous accusations put his back up and I can tell that Putin doesn’t like that- but does anybody like being treated that way? 

     As far as Jong Un is concerned- Yes, Jong Un is his first name and Kim is the last - I would challenge Trump to make a return visit to North Korea to see if any denuclearization is taking place. There are those who doubt it and even Trump’s returning words about the deal sounded dubious. They had no way of speaking directly to each other but when I watched them interact on T.V. the body and facial language told a story all its own. Talk about mutual lack of respect! Anyone who has lived under it though, would tell you that this is the general deportment of dictators- or would-be dictators, at any rate!

     In the same paper from last week I found a small item which will interest those who have been separated from their children or those who are concerned about this issue. In Hanover, New Hampshire a mother bear was captured a little over two weeks ago and relocated by Fish and Game Department officials after people apparently complained that she and her four cubs were raiding trash bins and bird feeders around the Dartmouth College area. Instead of transporting her cubs, as well, they decided to take them to a center that keeps orphaned animals!

     When they released the mother bear close to the Canadian border they had her tagged with a tracking collar and they have discovered that she is on the move and has traveled 70 miles, so far, and moving in the direction of her previous location- most likely trying to find the cubs she was separated from. Mr Timmons, the bear project leader for the area told the Valley News that he expected her to return and is now feeling a bit guilty for following the local, state and federal laws concerning bears!

     By now you’re seeing a straight correlation of what can go wrong when laws that don’t take everything into consideration suddenly has to deal with the consequences of taking action in accordance with those laws. I can tell you that a mother bear deprived of her cubs or facing down anything that would threaten them in anyway has a bear to deal with and that’s nothing to joke about or flout. Besides being inhumane I think that it is shameful that a law could do so much damage rather than help any living being. I’ll tell you this- I pity the fool who tries to keep that mother bear from getting her cubs back. Do the right thing and save yourself !  

      Let’s hope immigrants have the same type of instincts in finding their children. That’s a problem no law has any right to mess with- just ask mama bear!  

The Castle Lady

Fall Leaves...

Fall, leaves, fall

by Emily Bronte

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;

Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow

Blossom where the rose should grow;

I shall sing when night’s decay

Ushers in a drearier day.

Love it!

The Castle Lady 

Miracle Bank Account

     If someone were to make sure that you received $960 deposited into your checking account everyday how would it change your life? Would you continue working your job ? Would you go on a permanent vacation? Perhaps you'd take it as a chance to give to all the worthwhile charities that you've been longing to contribute to and could gift people you know and even those you don't know at will and impromptu. It sounds wonderful doesn't it?

     Now, imagine this: that bank account needs to be emptied each day or it automatically defaults to zero. You cannot transfer the money to any other account. It promptly starts again at the above amount each day. That means you would have to get cracking on spending that money as soon as possible every day and maybe spend to the exclusion of all other activities. What a concept, huh ? Perhaps you'd hire someone to help you spend the cash so you wouldn't lose out on your entitlement. You'd get very clever in making sure that you spent every dime so you didn't lose out.

     As a matter of fact we have that deal already in the form of time. That's right. Excluding the time we spend valuably resting up for the next day we have 960 minutes everyday at our disposal. Knowing that our time may be more valuable than money I wonder if you'll change some of your activities and put that time to different or better use. Perhaps the above concepts of making sure that the time was wisely and thoroughly spent will put you in a different frame of reference for your life.

     It's your time account. What are you waiting for ?

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care

about time...

The Castle Lady