Spelling Bee: A Running Diary

I thought a running diary might be in order for last night's Scripps National Spelling Bee. Unfortunately, my diary will have to pick up in the middle of the finals (the beginning didn't tape). Here we go:

Six contestants remaining, all eighth-graders, including a cocky-looking kid named Rajiv Tarigoula. Apparently Rajiv has reason to be cocky--he ended up in fourth place last year and is the only one of the remaining spellers who has gotten this far in the competition previously. He's from St. Louis. I can already tell you he is smarter than any juror who sat on my jury last year in St. Louis. Ah, justice. He has to spell yizkor. It's a Jewish memorial service for the dead. I ask Gobo if he can spell it (he's Jewish, after all). He tells me there are "a lot" of ways to spell yizkur. Ummm, I don't think so. If there were, it wouldn't be a Spelling Bee word, would it? Rajiv doesn't seem to have such problems and spells it correctly. The commentators tell us that he is "calm, cool and collected" and has been "dreaming about this since last year when he finished fourth and he doesn't want to miss this opportunity." Of course he doesn't. Don't miss your chance to blow, Rajiv, this opportunity comes, once in a lifetime.

Now we have Katharine Close. One great thing about the Bee is that they announce the word but wait a few minutes before showing the TV audience how to spell it. So the viewer can take wild guesses. I didn't get yizkur right, in case you were wondering. Katharine has to spell shaidu. Wait, sorry, that's shedu. The first spelling was my guess. See? I'm horrible. Katharine is not horrible--she gets it right.

Next up, Michael Christie. The commentators: "We're not gonna say he's the big surprise, we're not gonna do it." I guess Michael Christie was a big surprise. How do they know?! Do they really have information on each of these kids to the extent that they can handicap the field? Oh, well, I guess the big surprise can't last too long--he's out with appenzell, incorrectly spelling it as apenzel. Oh, last year Michael came in 72nd place. So I guess that's how they know he was a big surprise. He goes to sit on his dad's lap, looking a little disappointed. Cheer up Mike! You improved 66 places!

Next up, Saryn Hooks. Nice job, parents, naming your kid after a nerve gas. Oh, the commentators say "she has been reinstated." That sounds interesting. DAMN that I forgot to DVR the first hour of this. Saryn is actually a pretty cute kid and looks somewhat normal. Unheard of in the Bee. She spells croquignole so quickly they almost don't have time to put the word up for the television viewers. Apparently Saryn is "making the most of her second chance." Argh! I need to know why she got a second chance in the first place.

Start of round eleven. A pre-spelling piece on contestant Finola Hackett. They start it out with her singing "O, Canada" off-key. This is kind of embarassing. She's a cute kid, though. The one word used to describe her would be active. And there she is...sitting at her piano. Yup, spelling and piano, who would have thought? Oh no. Now she's playing the accordian. And she Irish dances. Can someone save this girl?! And they end it with her singing "O, Canada." Oy. FYI, the spelling bee is open to all English-speaking countries. Finola has to spell douane. Easy peasy. I have not known one word that has been spelled.

Theodore Yuan. He has to spell searingadenus. At least that's what it sounds like. But the real spelling: syringadenous. It means "of or related to the sweat glands." Oh, well now that I know that, I surely could have spelled it right. Oh, he just asked if it is an adjective--apparently that's important, according to the commentators. Shockingly, there are no alternate definitions for this word. S-y-r-i-n-g-a-d-i-n-o-u-s. Got it wrong by one letter. Poor Teddy. He goes to sit with his parents. Unfortunately, there are no extra chairs, so he sits on the floor. Insult to injury, people.

Oh, cocky Rajiv is back up. "He's considered the favorite and...he knows it." Oh, a little pre-spelling bit on Rajiv. He is spelling us his favorite word during his bit--it is 45 letters long. I can't even transcribe it, sorry. He tells us he was the second seed last year and the first seed is out, so he's the top rank left. He has to spell heiligenschein. Not looking so confident anymore, huh Rajiv? "Are there any alternate pronounciations?" "Just heiligenschein." That never gets old. Oh, Rajiv only has 30 seconds left to spell the word. But he asks for bonus time! Bonus time? Who knew? It gives him a whole extra minute. What are the rules about bonus time? Can't they give us a little infograph to tell us? "He's gonna have to trust his instincts here." H-y-l-e-g-e-n-s-c-h-e-i-n. Wow, he butchered that. This was "very uncharacteristic" for him. "German should have told him, it was h-e-i- at the beginning." Duh, Rajiv. And you call yourself the top seed?! Oh, but he gets a standing O. And his dad gets out of his seat so Rajiv can take a load off. Maybe Mr. Yuan should take a lesson here.

Katharine back up. She has to spell hukilau. It means a party involving many people and much revelry. I wonder if poor Katharine has ever attended anything remotely resembling a hukilau. Oh, maybe she has, she managed to spell the word pretty quickly!

Nerve gas up again. Made quick work of austausch. Three girls remain in the competition, no boys. In fact, according to the commentators, we will have the first female champion since... [please say 1997, please say 1997, please show a clip of Rebecca Sealfon] 1999. Damn. No Sealfon clip.

Oh, quick montage of kids having trouble spelling. I guess this is supposed to be funny. It's not.

Looks like we are now only spelling "championship words." Ooooohhhhh.... I'll probably have a lot more trouble spelling these than the other words. Oh, wait, I didn't spell one of those correctly. Oh well, I guess I'll just continue to suck.

Finola's back up. O, Canada. She has to spell dasiphilous. Oops, sorry, that's dasyphyllous. At least Finola got it right. Oh, ew. Male commentator: "Her full name is Finola Mei Wah Hackett. That Mei Wah is Chinese for beautiful flower. Boy, is she blossoming on this stage tonight." This girl is 14. That's just really unnecessary to say. Female commentator: "She certainly is."

Next up, Katharine Close. Apparently her nickname is Keri. Okay. She had a pretty easy job with clinamen. Male commentator: "Keri is oh-so-close to realizing that dream and now the pressure's really on." You know, I should just let the commentators do the talking here, they are much funnier than I could be. Of course, they aren't trying to be, but that really makes it better.

Saryn up. She has to spell ichturitious. She is using her finger to "write" it on her hand. She's the first person I have seen doing that, which surprises me--I would think we would see more of that. Oh, guess what? I got the spelling wrong. It's actually icteritious. But so did Saryn, spelling it i-c-t-e-r-i-c-e-o-u-s. What was she thinking?! Even I got the last part right. Saryn gracefully leaves the stage and manages a genuine-looking smile. I still can't get over how normal she appears.

Oh, some more background on Saryn's first elimination. They are interviewing her and asking what it felt like to be eliminated and then a few minutes later, reinstated. She says "confusing." They still aren't telling me why this happened. I'm not thrilled with the coverage, I'll tell you that much. She thought they were kidding when she heard she was back in. Ugh, I'm really frustrated with this lack of information.

Okay, back to our final two. Remember, we are still spelling championship words.

Finola gets maschicotage. Oops, I'm wrong again. It's machicotage. Hey, I was only off by one letter! She gets it right. Apparently, this is "luck of the draw" working in her favor, because three of her last four words have been French, whichFinola studies in school. Okay, I studied French for six years, and you saw what I did with machicotage. I don't know how much this would really help. But if the commentators think so, I'll take their word for it.

Katharine/Keri is up again. Recrimentitious. Actually, it's spelled recrementitious. Again, only off by one letter! I'm proud of myself here.

Only 20 championship words remaining! This means that if they run out of championship words, we get a tie. A tie? A tie??!! Who makes up these rules? Shouldn't they have come up with more than 26 championship words to start this thing? I call shenanigans!

Finola's up. She spells esquisse easily. French again, so I guess her "luck" is really taking over here.

Katharine. Siticism. Or, as Katharine correctly spells it, psittacism. Wow, I suck.

Finola. She gets a word that is Greek. Guess her luck ran out. Just FYI, I speak Greek fluently and I had no idea how to spell maieutic--to the point that I didn't even try. Finola gets it right. The male commentator just called her "the Pride of Tokyo." I hope there was an earlier piece on how this is her nickname or something, because otherwise...just not okay.

Katharine. She has to spell obad. Or, as Katharine correctly spells it, aubade.

Finola. 16 championship words remain. Poiesus. Damn, I'm off by one letter again, it's actually poiesis. She gets it right. And--WHA???!!!! Oh no! DVR is asking me if I want to delete my recording! That means that the Spelling Bee went overtime and I won't get the end. Damn. DAMN!

Okay, I spent the last half hour looking for the Bee online, On Demand, everything. And, nothing. Damn. So now I just have to read what happened in the end.

The winner was Katharine Close. Good for Katharine. She correctly spelled ursprache after Finola couldn't get weltschmerz right. Sounds like a German word, not French. Oh, and I got some info on Saryn--apparently she was told she spelled a word incorrectly, but it turned out she hadn't, so she was reinstated in the competition.

I wonder if it bothers new champion Katharine that her own first name is spelled less-than-conventionally.