Competing at the 2006 bee, Finola Hackett and winner Katharine Close (seated). ESPN Photo: Mark Bowen
The 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, baby! I can’t even do this event justice in a small blog post. American kids of far-flung nationalities puzzling over the etymologies of the same dead languages. The dissonance of the ding! of elimination, which sounds like it should signal a correct answer but means the opposite. The eternity between when a kid misses an early letter in a word and when he finishes it.
The final airs on ABC in primetime, but the competition aired on ESPN this morning, and is on ESPN News as I write. The drama moment came when 13-year-old Samir Patel, of Colleyville, TX, a previous 2nd and 3rd-place finisher, was eliminated on clevis, a word of Scandinavian origin that means “any of various connections in which one part is fitted between the forked ends of another and fastened by means of a bolt or pin passing through the forked ends.” [He lodged a protest that the word was mispronounced, but his appeal was denied.]
The crowd gasped. The commentators were stunned. And his opponents were visibly moved as they stood and gave him a standing ovation. You’ll have to excuse me. I’m getting a little verklempt.
Tangentially related trivia question: Who can name a short-lived past sitcom about homeschooling? Your bonus time starts now…