I Heart Edmonton

Edmonton teen spells his way to nationals at today's regional spelling bee BY EMIL TIEDEMANN He's only 13-years-old, but Jared Barron of Edmonton's Ottewell Junior High School could easily kick my ass! At spelling, that is. You see, the 8th grader won today's (February 20) 2010 Canwest Canspell Northern Alberta Spelling Bee , presented by the Edmonton Journal . His winning word was auricular , which--according to Wiktionary --means "of or pertaining to the ear." Don't ask me to use it in a sentence though. "I was mostly thinking just that I want somebody to get a word right so that we could get on with it," Barron said after he beat out runner-up Allison Probst , an 11-year-old who attends Grade 6 at Calmar Elementary School . Barron won himself a trophy, $5,000, and a trip to Ottawa to compete in the National Spelling Bee from March 24th to the 29th. And we can't forget about bragging rights! There was a total of 68 students (Grades 4-8) ...

We've got it pretty good here, but Edmonton could stand to fix a few kinks... BY EMIL TIEDEMANN A S MUCH as I love this city, I have to admit that she has her problems. None that can't be improved upon though, with the exception of the subsiding mercury...but we should be used to that by now. Most of the issues Edmontonians have with their city are the usual suspects, kinks that most urban centres deal with on a daily basis. Fortunately, for us, none of these problems involve earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, unreasonable smog, overcrowding, traffic congestion (in comparison), choking gun violence, rats, flying cockroaches, or Cèline Dion (just kidding...kinda). Nope. We have it pretty good here in Edmonton when we think about what we don't need to worry our pretty little heads off about. But, despite that last statement, there's always room for improvement. I Heart has taken it upon itself to examine some of the "issues" Edmonton faces in 2010 ...