So when I learned that Lost Valley – Milwaukee’s best, and only, cider bar – puts on a (low stakes, more comedic than competitive) spelling bee on the third Thursday of every month, I had to check it out. Maybe it’d give me a chance to redeem myself.
The bee began well enough. The hosts — comedians James Boland and Michelle Gilliam — awarded me 1,000 extra points for drinking cider while I took my turn. And I managed to correctly spell most of the words that Boland rattled off during an “accent” round despite the fact that he insisted on speaking with a thick Australian accent that made words like buoy sound a lot like boy.
Going into the final round, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. But all the confidence – or cider I’d guzzled – must have gone to my head because I managed to misspell the last word I was given. As it turns out, caca has no place in cacophony, but it does describe my performance that night. Whoops again.
