Tonight a Spelling Bee champion will be crowned in America. Unlike the Kentucky Derby there is no chance that one of the competitors here will be shot if they come up lame. Most likely. This competition marks the annual pinnacle of Indian American intellectual flexing, and we can almost guarantee a Thomas Friedman op-ed tomorrow.
Tonight we (Indian Americans) make up for all of the incidents where we got picked last in gym class or that one time we didn’t make the high school badminton team because we cut our head open and had to get like a whole bunch of stiches the night before tryouts and were in the emergency room until very late at night and the doctor said that we should stay away from all strenuous physical activity for at least a week but we tried out anyways…and got cut, from the badminton team, which even our other more nerdy friends made it onto.
Throughout the rest of the day please check this post for updates. I might be a little behind some of you during parts of the day but I will hopefully be online for the championship round this evening which will be televised on ABC.
Here are the desi horses in the race starting from Round 4 onwards. This is how it works. If you see a word appear under their picture it means they have been eliminated and should be banished forever from our thoughts. There is an ages old Scottish saying that is quite appropriate here: “There can be only one.”
I haven’t seen such a line-up of pictures since the Dream Team.
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Now, I hate to bet on little kids but my money is on Samir. He has this look that just says “I’m going to eat you alive. You just don’t know it yet.” I am often wrong though.
You can all follow along here. If I missed a kid then let me know in the comments.
Update 1 (4:10 PST) : I thought we should take a look at the “final four.”
Here is the scouting report on Rajiv:
Rajiv is a 13-year-old spelling whiz from Chesterfield who breezed through the first four rounds of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee here on Wednesday.
His spelling success means the eighth-grader from Sperreng Middle School, who is making his fourth consecutive appearance at the national bee, will advance to today’s final competition rounds…Last year, Rajiv placed fourth in the national competition. This year, he said, he hopes to beat that performance…
On Wednesday, Rajiv - who plays soccer, tennis, and chess, among other hobbies - was performing like a champion-in-waiting…
After studying five or six hours a day in anticipation for this week’s competition, it’s no wonder Rajiv exuded more confidence than jitters during Wednesday’s competition.
“I’m a little nervous but I’m used to it,” said the veteran spelling bee contestant. “The experience helps…” [Link]
Her friend and fellow Kansan Aishwarya (TMBSITW) went down, but our girl Kavya is still in the hunt (and is not using the Spelling Bee to get into Harvard):
City: Olathe
Age: 10
Grade/school: Fifth grade, Regency Place Elementary
A troublesome word: “Steenjiz,” from the Afrikaans language
Verbatim: “I like Latin and Greek words a lot, getting into the root. It’s a little easier to put together than French, which depends on etymological rules…” [Link]
Tomorrow could turn into an absolute nightmare for members of the press if Nidharshan Subra Anandasivam of Texas wins but the press might need a shot in the arm to get off of their lazy asses.
The crowd cheered after the eighth grade student from St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville politely corrected Dr. Marty Lewis, English professor at the University of Brownsville, and continued to spell the winning word.
“I was pretty confident but not 100 percent sure (I would win again)” Nidharshan said holding his first place trophy. “I have a talent for spelling…” [Link]
Correcting an English professor? Gangsta. The dark horse in this race seems to be Michael Christie of New York. There isn’t a lot known about him:
Michael Christie never wavered in his defense of The Post-Standard/WCNY Spelling Bee championship. The soft-spoken eighth-grader from Clay watched his last competitor, Humma Sheikh, misspell whilom in round 10 of the competition Saturday at the WCNY studios on Old Liverpool Road. Whilom means former.
Christie, an eighth-grader at Bishop Grimes, then spelled dirndl on his turn. Dirndl is a dress style copied from Alpine peasant costumes.
Then, Christie had to spell one more word to make it back-to-back wins. He correctly spelled tephra, which is solid material ejected into the area during a volcanic explosion. [Link]
Tephra? Any non-geologist that knows that word scores points with me.
Update 2 (4:23p.m. PST): Just a reminder that on the West Coast the Bee will be taped delayed by three hours. East coast readers can feel free to post comments but I will be Live Blogging for the West Coast.
Update 3 (6:10 p.m. PST): Screw it. I just can’t wait. I will just update live EST.
Kavya got taken out and so did Nidharshan Subra Anandasivam. There were sighs of relief from the press corp when the latter misspelled “paillon.” Only two desis left. So much hangs in the balance.
Update 4 (6:30 p.m. PST): Only one left. Can Rajiv come through for us??
Update 5 (6:44 p.m. PST): It is over. The dream is dead. There will be no joy in Brownsville this year.
Where do we go from here? Where can we turn to? If the Canadian wins then Friedman will still write his article.
