B is for Back. And Befuddled.

If you chose "D" for the answer to the quiz in the last post, you were right.

And now Word Nerd's back *insert sound of knuckles cracking as she limbers up her fingers to type again, here*.

So while Word Nerd was away, she happened to watch the finals of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Watching these fourth- through eighth-graders spell words made Word Nerd think that perhaps she should renounce her title as "Word Nerd" because not only could she not spell many of the words used in the finals, she hadn't ever heard them before.

Take, for example, the winning word on the championship list, "ursprache." (Ur-spa-what-a?) Or "icteritious," the word that knocked out the third place speller. Or "weltschmerz" the word that downed the second-place finisher.

Word Nerd didn't know a one of them.

She thinks the "Word Nerd" title is now up for grabs. Leading contender, spelling bee winner Kerry Close. Or any of the runners-up.

For more on the national bee and the winners, click here.