So, all my faithful blog readers (you know, like, my mom) are probably concerned that I may not be updating now that the show is over. Fear not. I have auditions for the high school show I'm choreographing in the fall next week, and auditions for a kids' theatre show at the end of the month. Plenty of hilarity to follow.

But for now, I'd like to talk about the spelling bee I watched last night.

First off, I could NEVER be the announcer for one of these things. I just don't have the patience. So many of them go like this:

Announcer: Your word is "duck"

Speller: Duck?

Announcer: Duck.

Speller: Any alternate pronunciations?

Announcer: Just "duck".

Speller: May I have the definition?

Announcer: A water bird, a fabric, an army truck or a movement to avoid something.

Speller: Any alternate definitions?

Announcer: Do you think I was leaving some out just for fun?

Speller: May I have the language of origin?

Announcer: Middle English, not like that's going to help you much

Speller: Does it include the latin root "du" meaning "with feathers"?

Announcer: Stop making stuff up to fish for clues kid.

Speller: Can you use it in a sentence?

Announcer: Spell the word soon or you will have to DUCK when I throw my stapler at you.

Speller: Can you repeat the word please?


This would drive me INSANE.


Here's another interesting note. We tuned in when there were about 20 kids left I think. A noticeable amount of these kids were of East Indian descent. Interesting. Something in their culture or heritage that makes them particularly good spellers?

And then some of these kids stand up. Here are some of the names:

Nitish Lakhanpal
Anurag Kashyap
Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan
Bahareh Yaseen Saadatmand
Vaibhav S. Vavilala
Sahiti Surapanen
Rajiv Tarigopulai
Saptarshi Chaudhuri
Nidharshan S. Anandasivam

You are BORN to be a good speller if you're spelling those names out with magnets on the fridge. No wonder "Ben Brown", "Edwin Ho", "John Lee" and the kid named "TJ" didn't make it to the finals. Poor kids never even had a shot.

Ok, and while I think these kids are amazing and are totally to be commended, I can't help but snicker when they get up to the podium and on their written profile that appears it says "Interests besides spelling: Video games and math." Party on Wayne.