You may remember back a few months ago when I announced that I was ending my “News of the Day” column to pursue other writing ventures. Well, I didn’t quite know exactly what I was going to write about, but I knew something would strike my fancy.
Well, consider my fancy struck. After I participated in that ESPN Zone Sports Spelling Bee, and had so much trouble piecing together study materials in preparation for it, an idea popped into my head. (I also happened to be reading “Cardboard Gods” at the time).
I’ve adopted the “case study” approach of Josh Wilker’s blog/book, mixed it in with my love of words/spelling and encompassed that within the world of sports.
Behold . . . Spellczechs, a blog dedicated to the stories behind and about hard-to-spell athletes names. I’ll be discussing the likes of Yaz, Coach K, Mientkiewicz. The origins of their names. Tricks to remember their spelling. Their values in Scrabble. Original poems about them. Whatever comes to mind.
I hope you “Czech” it out . . . and don’t worry . . . “Bantermetrics” isn’t going away.
Best. Blog. Name. Ever.
Good luck with the blog! I'm a Detroit Pistons fan as well as a Yankee fan and when Arron Afflalo was with the team commenters on Detroit Bad Boys blog nicknamed him 'Spellcheck' because his name was so easily botched.
D-
I just went to and read your first entry. Great start. I had trouble entering a comment... Am I an open URL... I have no idea what that means. Anyway, just giving props.
[1] It is a great name! I thought my blog name was clever, but that was before I realized there was at least one of the same name for every topic on the internet!
Speaking of clever and czech, I am reminded of one of my favorite sports headlines of all time. After Pat Cash defeated Ivan Lendl at Wimbeldon (or maybe the US Open), the headline read: "Pat Cashes the Czech"
By the way, what's with "Tim"? It's Tshimanga!
Ha - it's funny you've referenced two things somewhat near and dear to my heart.
As a diehard Wolverine fan, Tshimanga Biakabutuka (as if firefox can get right with either of those), is an all-time favorite.
The game where Touchdown Timmy ran roughshod over the undefeated, #2-ranked Buckeyes was epic.
And as I may have mentioned here before, Cardboard Gods is being published by one of my closest childhood (and from there, forward) friends.
That book is really picking up some traction, huh? Interesting.
[3]
If you click on comment, there should be a drop down menu where you can select if/how you want to be recognized .... including "anonymous" and "name/url"
Love it, No problem commenting, added to my Must Read List, About to give it a special mention too
[8]
thanks!
Cool site and name, Diane. Good luck! As one of the few hockey fans on the banter, I found myself reading this hockey site a few moons ago. I find myself repeating the best names during games. So much so that my wife has latched on to a few. : )
http://tinyurl.com/9kwjau
[10]
OK ... that site and that entry are bookmarked for further investigation. Thanks!
Congratulations on the new venture, Diane.
A few names to have fun with:
Billy Grabarkewitz
Doug Gwosdz (might not be spelled right!)
Ken Szotkiewicz
Best of luck with it.