A Disappointing Occurrence

That's o-c-c-u-r-r-e-n-c-e. Occurrence. Could you have spelled that correctly without looking? Would knowing the origin of the word helped? Or the definition? Well, it wouldn't have helped me. And I guess it didn't help Alex either. He had made it to the finals of his Middle School's Spelling Bee. He was in the Top 12 for the whole school. And the Top 3 get to go to the Post Standard Spelling Bee (which is incidentally aired on Eric's station....) Well, Alex came in 4th place. Needless to say, he was VERY disappointed. But... there's always next year. He's only in 7th grade. 2 of the top 3 finishers were in 8th grade. So odds are good for next year. We'll start studying tomorrow.