Thanks to the reader who ostensibly meant well by correcting my austensibly. Ironic on this day when the National Spelling Bee begins to be caught mishandling a word like that. Honest, I'm usually a prety gud spelerer.

I know you'll all be rooting for our Vermont spelling bee participant, Lucy Weber of Weybridge. I hope she does well, too, but my real allegiance is to another speller - my nephew, Ethan Johnson, the oldest child of my youngest brother. This is the third year Ethan has gone to the national bee, representing greater Rochester, N.Y. He knows how to spell words you and I would think are made up.

Both he and Lucy aced Round 2 of the bee today, the first one where they are given individual words. It's not a particularly challenging round, but the rest of them will put us all to shame. Lucy nailed "literature," which our story on her in this morning's paper indicates is something she spends a lot of time reading. Ethan got "restaurant," which he has been known to eat at. Both advanced to round 3, which is still going on.

Ostensibly, they will both do better than I did in the last posting.

- Terri Hallenbeck