Re: "Usefull languages"

Aquamarine Demon scripsit:

> Hehehe... spelling bees...
ObDigression:  Normally the word "bee" refers to a cooperative
activity, not a competitive one.  (An American immigrant once puzzled
his relatives back home in England by writing that his "house was
raised by a bee in a single day".)  I wonder how in "spelling bee"
it came to mean "eliminative competition in spelling".
Ironically, with the collapse of such activities in most parts of American
society, "spelling bee" is the only usage of "bee" left.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_

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