coming and going

Words and word-nerds come and go.  Today is a red-letter day on both counts:  Amelia Slawsby sent me this link about the first spelling bee winner:

First national spelling bee winner dies at 97



Frank Neuhauser, who in 1925 won the first U.S. national spelling bee with the word "gladiolus," has died. He was 97.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42222043/ns/us_news-life/from/toolbar
 
AND....are you ready? Today is the 172nd birthday of the word "OK":  http://blog.oup.com/2011/03/ok-day/. You should read the post; it is actually very interesting (here's a teaser: OK originally stood for "oll korrect"), and there is a link to Google Ngrams worth looking at.
 
It is safe to say that whoever coined the phrase "OK" from Oll Korrect was not a spelling bee finalist. I was about to say that participants in any of the Dover Bees would have a ridiculously easy time spelling gladiolus, but then found my fingers hesitating mid-word...it's trickier than it looks.  I think we might have to add that to the list for next time...