The spelling bee is full of drama and excitement. There are brilliant spellers. They have wonderful personalities. And then there are the words.
Peter Sokolowski, an editor at large for Merriam-Webster, has been live-tweeting the Bee for several years. Although language is normally a means to an end, he said, when it comes to spelling bees, the focus is on the language itself.
"It's the purest use of the dictionary," he said.
From the audience, Peter recognizes the patterns in definitions and sees themes in what spellers misunderstand. He likes to comment on the Bee, he said, because he can present those themes as stories.
"The definitions are like these little abstract poems," he said. "Nobody hears dictionary definitions read aloud. Nobody, ever. Here, it's a public act. It's a celebration of the dictionary."
