The Morning After: I'll Be Laodicean You

Last night, ABC aired the finals of the Scripps national spelling bee, in which—spoiler alert—13-year-old Kavya Shivashankar won the title by spelling “Laodicean,” meaning, so Webster tells me, “lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.” As someone with the surname “Poniewozik,” I can only guess that a young life of spelling her name for strangers repeatedly launched Shivashankar on her spelling career early. How someone has not managed to turn the bee into an extended-run reality series yet is beyond me. Did you watch? And did anyone out there win their office betting pool?