Do you hear the buzz?

The internet is literally buzzing right now with chatter about who's gonna win this year's NSB, and I can't imagine it's been any different in the HYATT hotel the last couple days, with past experience dictating that behind all the pleasantries and the niceties, one underlining question usually surfaces: "Who's gonna win this year?"

The internet has been buzzing mostly about Kavya Shivashankar for 3 years now: In 2007, Darren Rovel (from CNBC) had her as the number TWO speller behind Samir Patel, and EVERYBODY had her as the dead-eye favorite last year (lemme correct myself on the last post, last year going into the finals Paul Loeffler dead-pinned Kavya Shivashankar as THE favorite, not one of the favorites, "part of a group of frontrunners," THE favorite.

This is supposed to be the year. It's gotten to the point where people have even had a backlash against picking her (Darren Rovell didn't shy away), ranking her #1. One online blogger says, "I STILL have a soft-spot for Kavya Shivashankar." What? STILL? As in, you've been thinking she's the favorite all along and finally now are considering other alternatives but are still clinging to her?

I think Kavya is the easy pick here, and obviously many of the prognosticators don't have her as a LOCK to win, it's more like among many to choose from, she's the one that people feel most secure about picking.

What I'm a little miffed about is Darren Rovell (and I mean, this guy's not a legendary handicapper of spelling bees or anything, I just like him because he writes nice in-depth posts and has annual predictions, like clockwork) not including Josephone Kao in his top 4 (he has Kavya, Vabhilav, Sidharth, and surprisingly, Kyle Mou). In fact, nobody I've seen online has even mentioned Josephine in their favorites yet. What's going on here? Have they not been reading my blog? Do they not know the brilliance of Josephine, the Spelling Queen?

Haha, I actually think this is good for Josephine to stay under the radar, not be expected to win, but have the skill set to do so. ( like I suspected would happen when I posted after the 2008 bee). Not that she needs more motivation, but this could be more of a chip on a soldier, that as one of the few 4-year spellers in the field she doesn't get more cred and recognition.

So, on Thursday night, after a long day of troublesome words, narrow escapes, making Dr. Bailley repeat words that are way too long, words that are not nearly as funny as "numnah(numbnut)," after round after round of disappointment mixed with euphoria, after the parents expressing way more emotion than the spellers, after second-guessing, re-analyzing, sweating, pondering, biting lips, staying calm, holding one's breath, clapping for others, getting tired, refreshing oneself, conquering through spelling, after years and years of dedication to the craft of spelling, at the end of the day after the dust clears, there will be one declaration made by Mary Brooks, the head announcer, "Josephine Kao, since you are the only speller left in Round __, you will have one word in this round. If you spell this word correctly, you will be the champion." And the rest, is victory.

Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
(Good luck!)