After much searching, I have finally found a way to correct misspelled words without using the full Spelling interface and without using the contextual menu, as that requires using the mouse.
I use the keyboard as much as possible. I much prefer it to using the mouse. I don't claim to know all the shortcuts but the ones I know, I use all the time.
And for some time, I've been looking for a way to correct spelling for cases when auto-correct doesn't work. I thought it should have been easy to do.
The only way I knew how to do it was right-clicking the misspelled word, which brings up a contextual menu the top of which shows suggestions followed by other options such as 'Ignore spelling,' 'Learn spelling,' and so on. But this is no shortcut and requires using the mouse.
After all this time with Lion, I've finally found an answer. Yes, Lion has auto-correct, but it can be switched off or you might click Escape before it can auto-correct and now the word on the screen is misspelled.
So, here's what to do:
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120216082931924