Forget the Super Bowl or the World Series: The most exciting competition of the year is the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which crowned a new winner last night. Intrigue, nerves, vocabulary — how can you not get revved up watching a competition featuring tweens that are far smarter than you’ll ever be? (Refreshing, though, isn’t it, that there are some out there whose interests extend beyond Justin Bieber and ruining our language one text at a time. Another draw: The competition hosted a pair of frenemies. Amazing.) Fourteen-year-old Sukanya Roy adorably picked up the win for spelling the word “Cymotrichous” correctly — you gotta love the way she knew she had it in the bag as soon as she got to the “t” in the word.
Also, props to Roy for not even breaking concentration when Dr. Jacques Bailly referenced Bon Jovi while using “Cymotrichous” in a sentence. (After all, it does mean “having the hair wavy.”) Whether that’s because she was focused, or has no idea who Bon Jovi is (get off my lawn, kids! I’m old) remains up in the air. READ FULL STORY »
