Watching Game 1 of Bulls-Celtics. My law school buddy who's a huge C's fan says they'll give us 1 game, 4-1. I beg to differ. "Giving a team a game" is like a slap in the face: it's like a teacher giving you a B+ "for good effort." I would hope the Bulls are in it more for just effort. Well, it's tied 75-75 in the 4th quarter.
Is it me, or is the broadcast crew sending it to Nancy Lieberman way too much?
Love the new Albert Pujols/machine commercial. Sometimes I wish I had that option w/ certain people: 1. Eliminate 2. Deny. Ha.
So I got a message today from a very important reader, and the message I got from it was, "You haven't been writing about the spelling bee that much!" I looked back at my posts real quick, and it's true, it's been like 40 days since I posted any of that content. Ask, and you shall receive. I apologize, cuz I'm on a somewhat different countdown: the days to my law school finals. (that'd be 16 days). But I'll suck it up.
I'm often reminded of how difficult spelling is. Yesterday our crim law class was talking about homicide, and I'm constantly getting tripped w/ whether it was "homocide" or "homicide." most of the words I know like that have the prefix "homo" so I ultimately settled on that, and good thin I'm not in the national spelling bee, because I'd been out and lookin embarrassed while doing it. (Btw, embarrass is another word i'm always 2nd-guessing). It's funny, I read "homicide" probably 10 times a day, but ur just so used to glossing it over and taking it for granted, when u actually have to spell it it's like, "I don't remember this!" Urg. Just imagine trying to spell spelling beasts like "flibbertigibbet" or "colcannon" when you've only seen it once or twice in your life! (or maybe none!- gulp).
Update on possible spellers in this year's bee:
Sidharth Chand will be back at the national spelling bee this year. Here's the story:
http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2009/03/16/news/doc49be4d9a93048168621784.txt
Seemed like he got an easy winning word in "cauterize," so maybe he didn't get through the toughest bee in the word to get through to the nationals.....but he'll be ready. Man looks like he published 6 books on microscopic arthropedic surgery since last year. 2nd pla
Kyle Mou spelled "nectarivorous" to advance to the national bee this year, (8th last year), out of my home state, Illinois: I gotta tell you, there are some SMART people in Peoria, IL. Don't let the midwest swang fool you.
There's a new star rising in Canada. I'm always intrigued by spellers coming from Canada, because not only do they advance out of their own regional contests, but they have their own national spelling bee before the U.S. "national spelling bee." I dunno how big the Canspell Spelling bee (Canadian bee) is over there, but I presume that the U.S. "National Spelling Bee" is bigger because it draws contestants from all over the world. The U.S. Bee, I think, is more of a "All-English-Country-Speaking Countries" Bee, or maybe a "Universal Bee," not just about the U.S. Plus it's covered by ESPN w/ nice montages, storylines, and Erin Andrews, so I'd say there's more pageantry and excitement about ours.
So far, I don't think there have been any national spelling bee winners from Canada. (last year Anqi Dong was supposed to be a favorite but my dad walked into the room for the first time to see me watching the bee, and as soon as that happened anqi went down. I'm telling my dad to stay away from me May 26-28 this year).
Anyway, Canada's new star: Laura Newcombe, 10-year-old from Toronto. Wasn't in the national spelling bee last year, but seems like a stud. Checked out some of the words that knocked other spellers out in the 52-round contest: not bad. Laura also beat out some other top Canadian spellers: Veronica Penny and Emily LaFleur, who both made it to Round 5 last year of the nationals. Not bad.
O here's the link: http://www2.canada.com/national/features/canspell/index.html
Dunno how the Canadian bee works in terms of getting a bid to go to Washington, D.C., but I would imagine the top 8 spellers from CanSpell, at least, would get in. So watch out for Laura + other Canadians: they can be rather dangerous in the field.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
(P.S. more spelling posts to follow as we get closer to the day. Apparently Roseville, CA also has its own countdown in anticipation of Josephine Kao's time to shine, and I agree w/ that.
2 comments:
All 22 CanSpell qualifiers go to Washington, too.
I agree about Laura Newcombe. She's got two more years to go (if she needs them). She said there was only one word in the entire CanSpell competition that she didn't know (tyee, which means a Chinook chief.) I believe her.
Her older sister Leslie won the SBOC (Spelling Bee of Canada, which isn't affiliated with Scripps) a few years ago and Laura beat her own brother to qualify for CanSpell.
I consider Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe Kansas the favorite for Scripps. She's been in the top ten three times, won a Jack & Jill Spelling Bee (for 5th graders and under), a North-South Spelling Bee (for ethnic Indian kids) and the Kansas State Fair Spelling Bee.
I see you posted about Kavya's regional bee last month.
Laura knew every word because she had the list, (and Tyee wasn't on it.)
The bee went 52 rounds because the top 3 finishers studied the list.
It was the Scripps round 3 list.
If you didn't know to study it, you didn't have a chance.
This year, only the Canspell champ goes to Washington
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