Duh!

I can't believe Ora Irby of Dallas wrote this letter to the editor. What I really can't believe is that The Dallas Morning News actually published it.

Ora thinks "scythe" is a stupid word. Her daughter misspelled the word in her high school spelling bee. Ora said neither she nor her daughter has ever heard the word before. She must not have grown up in Texas -- certainly not in rural Texas. She says she wonders if the people who use scythes know that's what they are. She wants to know why it's not called a weed cutter since that's what it's used for. I guess we could carry that further: "stove" is such a stupid word, let's call it a food cooker; "bed" is a stupid word, let's call it a reclining device; "camera" is a stupid word, let's call it a picture taker; "chair" is a stupid word, let's call it a butt prop; and on and on.

Ora sums up with "So, there we are: having a stupid word with which a speller must have been familiar in the first place in order to spell it . . . No matter our IQ, we cannot win all the spelling bees of life." Obviously, "no matter our IQ," we can have a letter printed in the newspaper!

"The tough contests of life." The Dallas Morning News; January 10, 2009; p. 4B.