Is Knowing How to Spell Words You Can’t Define Improtant?

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When I watch the national spelling bee, I know they can spell the words but the don’t seem to know the meaning of very many.  So is it better to misspell a word you know or spell a word you don’t know correctly.

The concept of a spelling bee was first in print in 1876.  Two of the big differences between then and now are “Spellcheck” and a massively larger pool of words.  In 1876, there was probably a much smaller gap between spelling and understanding…about 7 or 8 hundred thousand words.

The moderators always seem so smart about all the words but I’m sure they have to look most of them up.  I thought is going to a definitions bee and including words someone might actually use some day.

Just a thought…not earth shaking.  I hope I spelled everything right.

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Our Real Philosophers

 originally uploaded by mquest foto.

While everyone wants to quote Shakespere, Plato and Nietzsche here’s some quotes from the real philosophers of our time.

Yogi Berra..

• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
• “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical”
• “I always thought that record would stand until it was broken. “
• “I never said most of the things I said”
• “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded”
• “There are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell ’em.”
• “You can observe a lot by just watching.”

Gracie Allen…

• “Brains, integrity, and force may be all very well, but what you need today is Charm. Go ahead and work on your economic programs if you want to, I’ll develop my radio personality.”
• “The President of today is just the postage stamp of tomorrow.”
• “This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it’s all checks and no balances.”
• “When I was born I was so surprised I didn’t talk for a year and a half.”
• “Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years”

Casey Stengel

• “All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height. “
• “Don’t cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself.”
• “Never make predictions, especially about the future”
• “The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.”
• “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them”

Groucho Marx

• ” A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. “
• “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend on reading it. “
• “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. “
• “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”
• “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” 

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Trump Meets Darth Vader

I think this is a much more realistic show.  Why don’t we see things more like this.  Leadership in action.

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What’s the Matter with Kids Today?

I read a lot of blogs about how terrible things are with the younger generation.  Oh, how it used to be better.  We read 50 books on the way to school walking through 10 feet ove snow, up hill both ways. 

 I can’t remember a generation that did think the next generation was going to hell in a handbasket…and yet society goes on and progresses.  In 1900, 90% of the popluation lived in poverty and the average life expectancy was 40. 

So for a little entertainment, here’s a little video I like that sums everything up.

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What Can We Learn from Larry the Cable Guy?

The answer, I have no idea.  But what would Christmas be without a little Christmas story from Larry the Cable Guy.  Comments and holiday wishes are welcome.

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More Smart Adults

If you liked the last clips from Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, then you’re going to like these two as well.  I’m not drawing any conclusions, but I think they speak for themselves.

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Multiple Intelligence

I was reading about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence.  He states that instead of one their are 8 types of intelligence:

• Body-Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Linguistic
• Logical-Math
• Naturalistic
• Intrapersonal
• Musical
• Spatial

I think it’s a way of explaining why some people are really smart in some things and not others.  As in the expression, if you’re so smart why aren’t you rich.  I think this model begs two questions.  First, why 8 and not 10, 20 or more.  I guess it’s just the way you want to slice things.  But I think a couple others that I’d add are Entrepreneurial or how to grow a business out of nothing and maybe Invention or how to come up with ideas that change everyone’s world.  Maybe there’s sales intelligence such as those who can sell anything to anyone.  While they might have some elements of the other intelligences, they can be very unique.

The second question is that when you start breaking things done into multiple parts you quickly lose how they interact, overlap and work together.  In fact, the real genius might be in those relationships for example, being able to come up with an explanation of the universe and actually being able to explain it to everyone.

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