Spellbound

OK, I admit it: I'm sitting here watching the 2007 national spelling bee LIVE! And I don't see myself turning away from it anytime soon.

A kid just got the word punaise. He asked for the definition, which is bedbug, i.e. punaise is another word for a bedbug. When the announce said the word, he said "Oh my gosh!" When he got the definition, he said "I'd like bedbug better." When he spelled the word correctly, he asked "Really?" You gotta love these kids.

Another kid got the word pelorus, which is a navigational tool (I totally would have spelled it polaris). The kid asked for the etymology and received the answer "unknown." No help there. Or in the low voiceover, "Unless she happened to have studied this word, she just really isn't getting any clues here." She misspelled it.

I also love the ABC/ESPN sports commentary on the whole thing, the soft voiceover with things like "As he approaches the mike, you can see that he's a first-timer here, but the confidence will come over time." We also get the little bios of these kids, completely parallel to world champion athletes. It's really kind of cool. In a geeky kind of way.

I also love that most of them, when they get a word wrong and are given the correct spelling, say "thank you." It's probably mostly training, but it's so respectful and nice.

Did you know that cilice is a fancy word for hair shirt? Or a genizah is a storeroom in a synagogue for damaged or defective books and other sacred artifacts? Any takers for bewusstseinslage?

OK, it's down to the last one. He has to spell one last word correctly to win. He got serrefine, which means a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel. It was pretty clear that knew it as soon as he heard the word. He nailed it. He's the champion, and the trophy is bigger than he is. Evan O'Dorney from California. Congratulations, Evan!

One final note, because I know that some of my readers are interested in such things: he's homeschooled. And he's the third homeschooler to win the national spelling bee.