It sounds like a disease doesn’t it; clevis. Like “Hey man, don’t go near that chick, she’ll give you the clevis.” Well it’s not a disease, but it is a word that can ruin lives and shatter dreams, for at least one little boy I know.

Today, in the fifth round of the 80th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, competition favorite #247, Samir Patel, was eliminated after mistakenly spelling clevis, meaning type of fastening devise, “c-l-e-v-i-c-e”. The audience gasped, the judges couldn’t believe what they were hearing, his mother launched a huge appeal and good old Samir got the boot.

Samir was quoted after the competition as saying, “The first thing I thought was c-l-e-v-i-s, and if I had been slow and cautious like I always am, I would have got it right,” he said. “But I just outsmarted myself. It was an easy word. I just made a stupid mistake.”

Now, I should stop and remind you here, this kid is 13. To be 13-years-old and a super genius is hard enough without one spelling mistake disgust a group of people, I should know. It’s obviously eating this poor kid up inside. I think people need to lighten up on him. It’s a Spelling Bee people. When I was 13 I could hardly spell kaht…I mean cat.

The Championship Finals air live on ABC between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. EDT tonight, but I’d like Samir Patel to know that as far as the Daily Brew is concerned, you are the champion…you are the champion.