Canadian teen second-best at U.S. bee

"In the end, Finola Hackett missed one letter in weltschmerz, which means sentimental pessimism, before she finally heard the bell marking defeat that had already rung for 272 other competitors at the 2006 Scripps Bee.

The graceful teenager paused for the first time in the competition when she heard weltschmerz in the 19th round. Hackett tried tracing the word on her hand and looked at the ceiling as she tried to piece together the 11-letter puzzler. Later, she said that she had studied the word before, but didn't know it "extremely well.""

Well though I could have spelled weltschmerz at her age it was part of my problem, but I had no idea spelling bees used so many foreign and scientific Scrabble-dispute type words. And my spelling, in which I once took great pride, is not what it was. Any one of the final nine kids would have wiped the floor with me.