Soukous but no cigar

Every year we go to the Adult Spelling Bee (thanks fraeuleinchen for keeping us apprised of the schedule) and every year I learn a new word whose spelling will be forever etched in my brain. Words like feuilleton and syllepsis.

In the first-round written test I made 19 out of 20 (having been inoculated as many times as I have, you'd think I'd know how to spell "inoculate" by now). This was enough to advance to the second round. In the second-round written test, I also made 19 out of 20 (misspelling "scleroderma"). This was enough to make it onto the stage with 22 others, including Lyn.

In the on-stage competition, unless you know most of the words in the dictionary (as perennial winner Geoff seems to), there is a lot of luck involved. If I'd been given "aficionado", I'm sorry to admit that I would have overdone it with the effs. My first word was "spongiform" (as in "bovine spongiform encephalopathy") and I doubt there was anyone on the stage who would have missed it. My next word was "zori". Having grown up in a house where we called sandals zoris, this was another gimme.

On my next round, the word was the name of a type of music indigenous to Congo (sounds like "Sue coose"). Of all the people at Threadgill's that night, it seems like more than concidence that this word should have gone to probably the only person there born in the Congo. Another gimme, right? Alas, while I had heard the word many times, I hadn't seen it spelled out (at least not often enough). My answer was close, but wrong.

I was happy to take fifth place--that's the best I've done at these things. (raaga123 has placed 4th and 3rd in past competitions.)