Seriously, who gives a fuck if these twerps can spell entirely random-ass words that they would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever use in actual conversation -- or, for that matter, even in writing? They just asked three words in a row that I had never even heard spoken or seen written, and I've read some pretty lofty shit. Not even Lovecraft would use these words.

One of them was "kilim". Even if one did have occasion to use this word -- say, one happened to buy a kilim -- one would likely end up having to explain that it is a rug anyway, since there's a good chance that one's conversation partner would have no idea what the hell a kilim is. So why not just save syllables and call it a rug in the first place? Useless.

And think of all of the things that these kids could have been doing instead of memorizing the spellings of multiple words -- and in multiple languages to boot! Not all of these kids are thin: they could have been outside running around and playing sports and getting in shape. Everyone can stand to be more clever: maybe they could have spent some time reading Plato or something. But then again, they're freaking kids: why not let them watch some cartoons or fire up the Xbox360 and enjoy their youth? Instead they are reading overfed dictionaries for the purpose of competing in some bullshit contest and enriching a skill that has largely been made irrelevant by the advent of Microsoft Word and the F7 key.

I have a monster headache right now. 🙁