I'm the opposite--I'm a great speller on paper, but I absolutely suck at spelling aloud. Seriously. I got knocked out of the spelling bee in fourth grade for misspelling "jeep." Not that I didn't know perfectly well how it's spelled, but somehow what I said was "g-e-e-p." One of the great embarrassing moments of my childhood--I can still remember how loudly everyone laughed at me, the Smart Girl, for botching such a simple word! That was just a brain fart, of course, but with longer words I lose my place spelling aloud. If someone asks me to spell something for them, the only way I can be sure I'm right is to write or type it, and then read off the letters.

And I figured out how to read before starting school, but somehow I learned phonetically.

I got knocked out of the spelling bee in fourth grade for misspelling "jeep." Not that I didn't know perfectly well how it's spelled, but somehow what I said was "g-e-e-p." One of the great embarrassing moments of my childhood--I can still remember how loudly everyone laughed at me, the Smart Girl, for botching such a simple word!

"Zucchini." I meant z and said s. I felt awful. (to my classmates' credit, I don't remember getting laughed at.)

"Translate." I added an extra a after the s, and I actually could have saved myself if I hadn't continued on to the a after the l, but I only came up with that strategy after it was too late. I was in sixth grade, and I lost to a fifth grader.

I got phonics, too, and I'm a pretty good speller. Like Susan, though, if it's longer than six letters, I want to write it down to be sure. Hubby and I figure one reason we got married was so I could correct his punctuation and spelling and he could take care of tricky math concepts.

For me it was "fruit". I added an "e" to the end.

Apparently left-handed people are notoriously bad spellers, so I excuse it with genetics.

I got to the citywide bee twice, and twice got stage fright and goofed on my very first word. Rabies (added an "i" after the "a" ) and department store (lost my place and left out the "-ment" altogether) were the words.

I'm an okay speller but a lousy typist, now.

Any readers have impressions of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to share? I bought it a couple weeks ago when I saw a copy on sale for a ridiculously low price, but I've since seen Spider-Man 2 and am beginning to regard reading Chabon as an obligatory homework project rather than something enjoyable in its own right.

I loved Kavalier and Clay. There were a few points were I thought the story dragged a little, but other than that, I thought it was great.

Loved it loved it. I could have done without the end, but I think I'm in the minority on that.

I thought it was great. It took a little while for me to get into, but I did.