Journal answers the challenge!

What?

A challenge? Issued to leflorecountyjournal.com?

Seriously.

Laura Young of the LeFlore County Literacy Council has asked me to get a team together for the 14^th annual LCLC Adult Spelling Bee on April 19.

At first, I thought it was a joke. Really. She is recruiting teams to take part in the contest and wants all the county newspapers (and apparently the Journal falls into that category even though we are a website) as a part of the competition.

Just to be fair, I was going to turn down the invitation at first. I have a soft heart at times and didn’t want to crush the competition and make them leave with a beating of epic proportions.

Plus, there was the entry fee.

But after some consideration and because it is a good cause, I decided to give it a shot.

I have never actually competed in a spelling bee. There is the worry about getting asked a word and breaking out in sweats in front of the crowd with no spell check or internet to check for proper spelling, but then again, I could let one of my teammates be the actual speller.

That left another dilemma. It is a three-person team. I could probably win it all by myself, but I need to share the glory. So, who could I convince to be my teammates? Do I know anybody willing to step up to the plate and risk embarrassment after spelling an easy word wrong?

Sure. They just don’t know it yet. I plan to get my old pal Ralph (aka Ralphman Due) Perdue Jr. and Trish the Wife to be my teammates.

Plus, with Ralph, he could bring his chitlins Journey and Kirksey to be our cheerleaders. I considered using Molly and Dodger Dog, but they are easily distracted and don’t know if they will learn to bark on command in less than a month. Especially with everybody eating popcorn.

Ralph will hopefully be game unless Journey has a softball game that night. Trish the Wife is another story. Getting her out of the house can be a problem.

Both of them are smart and I think Ralphman Due would be an excellent speller for the team. I can just see him asking for the definition of a word and how it is used in a sentence, like the little guys and gals in the National Spelling Bee.

We could all dress in our official LeFlore County Journal T-shirts, which should both build camaraderie (in the interest of journalistic integrity, I did Google that word for correct spelling) and spread the word about the website.

This might not be the Dream Team of Larry Bird and Michael Jordan in basketball, but in spelling competition, I expect us to flourish and trounce the competition as we capture the championship.