UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Spelling makes a comeback in U.S. schools

BOSTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Spelling lessons are making a comeback in U.S. schools, which have had a spelling decline in an era of spellcheckers and text lingo, educators said.

Richard Gentry, a Florida reading and spelling consultant, told The Boston Globe that spelling is a hot topic these days. "Researchers want to understand how we learn it, teachers want to know how best to teach it, and kids want to know how to ... win competitions." he told the newspaper.

Spelling-themed movies such as 2006's "Akeelah and the Bee'' and 2002's "Spellbound," as well as the Broadway musical "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'' have given new importance to what was quickly becoming a lost art.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is broadcast live on ESPN.

The Internet has actually made people more aware of bad spelling, the newspaper said Monday.

"People never knew how to spell," said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist and professor at University of California, Berkeley.

"They kept it a secret unless you saw their shopping lists or Christmas letter. You didn't see the comments they wrote on other people's blogs. You didn't see their own blogs."

Knesset member dumps water on colleague

JERUSALEM, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A member of the Israeli Knesset poured water on a colleague after he accused her of being a fascist, observers said.

Knesset Member Anastassia Michaeli of the Yisrael Beiteinu party got into a shouting match with colleague Ghaleb Majadele of the Labor party during Monday's meeting of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee.

Michaeli was speaking against the principal of an Israeli-Arab high school in Arara who took students to attend a human rights march. Beiteinu argued with Michaeli and told him to "shut up," Haaretz reported.

"She won't shut me up," Majadele said. "The issue of fascism won't stop here -- I intend on taking this debate to other Muslims who will serve as an example for the State of Israel ... Fascism will not be allowed to take over the house," Majadele said.

Majadele asked Committee Chairman Alex Miller to silence Michaeli, who responded by dumping a glass of water on Majadele.

"Majadele will learn not to insult women. He hurt the honor of the Knesset and of this place," Ynetnews quoted Michaeli as saying after the incident.

School worker faked daughter death

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A New York school employee forged a death certificate for her daughter to get a week's vacation to Costa Rica, city investigators said.

A recently released report from Richard Condon, special schools investigator for the city, said Joan Barnett, 58, a parent coordinator at the Manhattan High School of Hospitality Management, had one of her daughters call the school to say her sister had suffered a heart attack in Costa Rica, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

Condon's report said Barnett then had another daughter call to say the heart attack was fatal and the family was traveling to Costa Rica for the funeral. The report said Barnett forged a death certificate for "Xinia Daley Herman" to meet the school system's requirement for bereavement days.

A school official became suspicious of the death certificate because it contained "slightly different fonts which were not aligned properly," Condon's report read.

Costa Rican government officials confirmed the certificate was a fake and investigators determined Barnett had purchased her plane tickets three weeks prior to her trip.

Barnett was fired from the school and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor forgery.

The Daily News said Barnett could not be reached for comment and her lawyer declined to comment.

Egyptian women cane 'morality police'

BENHA, Egypt, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Self-proclaimed "morality police" in Egypt found themselves on the receiving end of a beating themselves when they threatened women at a beauty salon.

Witnesses said the ultra-conservative vigilante gang, members of the strict Salafi sect who consider themselves "morality police" inspired by Saudi Arabia's "Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," entered the beauty salon in Benha recently and ordered the women to cease their beauty treatments or face punishment, bikyamasr.com reported Monday.

However, the men, who claimed they were enforcing Islamic law, were shocked when the women attacked them with their own canes and shoved them out onto the street, where the women found support from bystanders, witnesses said.