Bruce Cameron: Spelling Boy

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008.

When I was in third grade, I was beaten up on the playground for winning the spelling bee.

Back then, I thought of myself as a pretty tough kid, but I didn’t have a chance in this particular fight: I was at least an inch shorter and 10 pounds lighter than she was.

Apparently by besting the odds-on favorite — a girl we called “Linda Blotnick” because that was her name, and because when someone has a last name like “Blotnick” you can’t not say it every time you mention her — I offended Rhonda Dunn. No one considered that it wa...