The Scripps National Spelling Bee, held each year around Memorial Day, is a sure sign that summer is upon us. Eight North Carolina students made it to the Bee this year, with a 13-year-old girl from a Raleigh magnet school coming in at 8th place. A 14-year-old California boy took top honors by spelling the word “bromocriptine” correctly.  I had to look up that one, and my spellcheck maintains it is not a word at all. The dictionary, nevertheless, defines it as a complicated alkaloid, which does not help me in the least.

With spelling on my mind, I was interested in a post from an online outfit named unscrambler.com, which reports that “studies show that reliance on autocorrect and AI deteriorate the authors’ spelling ability over time.” It urges us to double check spelling ourselves, adding that this is a “use it or lose it situation.”  

Amen to that.

unscrambler.com goes on to tell us that the most misspelled words in North Carolina are spaghetti, because, color, through, character, business, favorite, beautiful, science, and graduation. Who knew? 

And how on earth does unscrambler.com know?

According to unscrambler.com and based on the number of internet searches, Americans in general wonder how to spell bougie, favorite, through, business, tomorrow, because, definitely, beautiful, niece, and separate. Apparently, we Tar Heels are fairly normal when it comes to spelling.

Also, according to unscrambler.com, our neighbors have their spelling issues as well. 

Virginia struggles with spaghetti (just like us!). South Carolina cannot quite handle quite. Tennessee wrestles with through, and Florida is irked by school.  Georgia—bless her heart!—stumbles over Chihuahua, as do Wyoming and Oklahoma.  If we are honest, the rest of us probably do as well. Same for ukulele, Minnesota’s Achilles' heel.

All to remind us that nothing works like a good dictionary, even if it is online.

And then there is the whole North Carolina pork barbecue thing, which has been going on since before Duke hated Carolina and both hated NC State.

East versus west. Vinegar (east) versus tomato (west) sauce. Chopped pork (west) versus pulled (pork) east, although the lines are always somewhat blurred. Whole hog barbecue is a category unto itself but generally served in the east. All of the above have been and remain staples of church suppers, wedding celebrations, and, Lord help us, political events both right and left. Apparently barbecue is apolitical.

Carolina barbecue is a hodgepodge of our history. Native Americans, European settlers, African Americans and modern methods of cooking are all in today’s mix. It resonates with Tar Heels from 1 to 100, a reality brought home to me when a grown up daddy of my acquaintance and his 9-year-old son ate their way across the state from east to west to determine the best barbecue ever for the boy’s 4th grade North Carolina project. I think he made an A.

As for me, no tomatoes please. My husband made the best vinegar sauce ever. Friends still ask for the secret recipe.

And, finally, North Carolina is one of the original 13 American colonies, so this year’s 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding resounds here as much or more than in most other places. The ladies of Edenton swore off tea in October 1774, an act of rebellion against King George. North Carolina was the first colony to call formally for independence from England with the Halifax Resolves in April of 1776. That original document is on display in Halifax through September. 

The are no shortages of birthday celebrations. The NC Department of Cultural Resources website lists more than 1000 commemorations across the state, including a day-long 4th of July wingding at the State Capitol in Raleigh.

Let the celebrations begin both for our past and for our future.