Everyone Turn On The Spelling Bee Prelims
It’s better than whatever else you’re doing (unless you’re outside in which case, carry on)
Are you smarter than a first-to-eighth grader? Trust me when I say no. Have you hit a bit of a late-afternoon slump? Open ESPN3 in one of your browsers and watch the kids spell! There are still, like, over two hundred of them left. You will know some of the words and other words will be insane. You can try the play-along version, which lets you guess alongside the contestants:
Or you can just tweet your guesses, which is much more fun than c*vf*f*.
jeep knee #spellingbee
Reiterate." "Can you please repeat the word?" "Reiterate." #spellingbee
Weedicide. Very different than we decide. #spellingbee
OH and there’s a very cute six-year-old named Edith in the competition!
This is what awesome looks like! #goedith #recordbreaker #itsoktobenervous #spellingbee https://t.co/9v97h4PBXP
If you have a subscription to Harper’s, run do not walk to catch up on this excellent story by Vauhini Vara, herself a former bee champ, about the surge in Indian-American competitors in the National Spelling Bee.
You can also read what one really beautiful genius wrote back in 2013 about the Scripps Bee; most of it is still true:
First of all, most of them haven’t yet learned how to hide what they’re thinking, much less how they feel, under nationally televised pressure. It is said of the best athletes that they make their skill look effortless, but in the spelling bee, there’s all kinds of trying on display. This year, the spellers range in age from eight to fourteen (they range in height from pint-size to near full-grown). Some of them approach their words with a certain amount of technique — they might ask for the language of origin or the part of speech, for etymological clues. Others fly by the seat of their pleated pants, relying on rote memory or phonological intuition. But one thing is constant: you can tell immediately from the look on her face when a contestant knows her word.
What are you waiting for? This is the best feel-good sports you’re gonna get all week, and it goes on all day, until tomorrow night on ESPN.