ROUND SIX: 29 spellers remain. They are interviewing Samir Patel in between the rounds. He's a media dream. Poised, confident, relaxed, secure. He has the polish of one who has been interviewed A LOT.
I can't help but feel a little sad. He's all grown up, our baby Samir.
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Round 6 has begun. And mark my words, Horton Hears A Who Boy and Evan O'Dorney are going all the way to Prime Time.
Horton (after spelling "saltire" for the judges): I got it right?
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Tia Natasha-Elizabeth Thomas just went out on "theremin". She got that wide-eyed vacant look of one for whom the concept of failure is too much to bear. I'm worried about her.
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Kendra Yoshinaga has either refused or forgotten to comb her hair and I can't help but be a little bit proud of her for it. Screw beauty. Screw the cameras. Screw the glamour. I AM SPELLING, DAMMIT! I am moving my allegiances into her camp. She spelled "uncinate".
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Who knew that "lacertilian" meant "of or relating to a lizard"? The announcers just declared the speller of the word (a lovely kid named Kavya) a favorite first-timer to make a run for the trophy. I don't like the announcers. They seem arrogant and make bad puns. When Kayla Hudson went out "rieta", the male announcer said, "Rieta's a food. Quite delicious. But it doesn't taste so good to Kayla right now!" I'm paraphrasing but you get the horror, right?
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They also just misidentified Matthew Evans as Serenity Fung. Oh, my...
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What if Bonny Jain wins? If the same kid is champion of both the Geography Bee and the Spelling Bee does that cause a rip in the fabric of time and space creating a vortex?
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Caitlin Campbell has all the makings of a TV-star champion. She's gawkishly tall, she's sweet and she spells out the words on her forearm before she spells out loud for the judges. Plus her parents, unlike most, look genuinely stunned and confusedly proud at their daughter's obviously uncoached brilliance.
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Samir just correctly spelled "thymiaterion" -- and several ABC executives just sighed with relief.
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CONTROVERSY!!! Anjay Ajodha is just standing there on stage as the judges deliberate his fate. They go to audio tape, the poor kid stands there and finally, FINALLY, he is eliminated. He spelled "sterlet" as "sterlOt". Bye bye, Anjay...
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And Round Six comes to a close with Isabel Jacobson spelling "meningococci". 21 spellers remain...
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