I watched the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night. The final few kids were not the nerdy gems I expected. Second place went to 12-year-old Sidharth Chand, a polite South Asian kid with a moustache. He had the outcast edge in my rooting heart. Chand tripped up on prosopopoeia, a word that you do not know as a grown man or woman with body hair that sprouted on time. Do you feel guilty? God allowed you to develop normally, and you don't know how to spell prosopopoeia. Chand did not cry after his blunder; he is a dignified mustachioed champion in my eyes.
He is especially dignified when compared to last year's idiot champ, Evan O'Dorney. This one seemed to be home-schooled off his bespectacled ass.
Many of you might remember 1997 champion Rebecca Sealfon, the grand marshall of the nerd parade. Sealfon had the strange habits of smelling her fingers and shouting into the microphone like it was a muzzle. In the words of one commentator, you never knew what would happen when she went to the mic, but you knew it would be awesome. She certainly meant nobody harm like O'Dorney seemed to, so she is my favorite spelling nerd.
Watch her most famous celebration and the ensuing interview below.
"Many children are in grief because they lose."
~Rebecca Sealfon
No comments:
Post a Comment