MISQUAH — The first Doris Knutson Spelldown is scheduled for Friday, September 25, in the Lakeside gym at 6:30 p.m. Homecoming football against Pine City is scheduled for Friday, September 25, on the field at 7, preceded by a parade at 4 and coronation in the gym at 5:15.

These facts have coexisted on two separate calendars since spring and were noticed for the first time last Wednesday, when the athletic secretary and the Spelldown committee both requested the gym for the same afternoon and the request form did what request forms do, which is sit in the same tray.

Nobody has behaved badly, and this newspaper wants that understood before it describes what has happened.

The Spelldown committee — three teachers and the district secretary — offered Thursday morning to move to the following Friday. The athletic office declined Thursday afternoon, on the grounds that the Spelldown honors a woman who taught in this district for thirty-seven years and homecoming honors a football game. The Spelldown committee then declined the decline, saying they were not going to be the reason a coronation happens in a cafeteria.

As of Monday the standing arrangement is: parade at 4, coronation in the gym at 5:15, Spelldown in the gym at 6:30 with whoever stays, kickoff at 7, and every household in this town deciding at about a quarter to seven whether it is a football family or a spelling family. Several people have pointed out this is a false choice. The principal has described it as “a scheduling problem that has become a personality quiz.”

Mr. Brekke, who pronounces, has said he will pronounce at whatever hour the gym is available and that he has been practicing since August and does not intend to stop over a calendar. Doris Knutson’s six folders of Friday lists are copied. Study lists went home September 2.

One proposal has been floated and not adopted: hold the Spelldown at halftime, in the gym, and let the band walk over. The band director has not been asked.