A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

MEET THE FINAL 15: Here's a little afternoon reading for you, some background on each of the 15 remaining spellers (I'll be posting them five at a time). Official bios are here.

• Jonathon Horton, Scottsdale, Ariz. Last year's sixth place finisher describes himself as "loquacious," "perspicacious," and "ardent." The 14-year-old home-schooler has been practicing on a custom computer program and watching past Bees for up to five hours a day.
  
• Evan O'Dorney, Walnut Creek, Calif. A three-time vet, last year this home-schooler finished 14th overall. Evan prefers the logic of math and piano to spelling, which he practices while juggling.
• Tia Thomas, Oakhusrt, Calif. Yet another Bee veteran, Thomas made it to the sixth round last year. Thomas is also home-schooled and has been studying upwards of eight hours a day in recent week.
  
• Cody Wang, Calgary, Alberta. One of three Canadians left, Wang was eliminated in the sixth round of the Canadian national bee in April.
• Nate Garke, Edmonton, Albert. Canadian No. 2 had quite a battle on his hands in the Northern Alberta Bee. Attends the Victoria School for Performing Arts, which given my limited knowledge of such things (mainly various incarnations of Fame), means he might break out in song and dance at the drop of a hat. Here's a nice picture of Nate and the Canadian ambassador.
  
• Anqi Dong, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Nerves won't be a problem for this cool customer, whose spelling technique is to tap the letters of the word he's about to spell out on his palm before beginning. A big fan of Garfield: The Movie.
  
• Joseph Henares, New Haven, Conn. Another home-schooler, Joseph has been studying six hours a day and memorized a book of common bee words. He's not just about the spelling, though. He once appeared on Jeopardy!
• Claire Zhang, West Palm Beach, Fla. Saved thanks to instant replay earlier today, Zhang was knocked out in the fourth round last year. She's been studying about an hour a day in the ensuing year. She's an avid reader and a big fan of the Harry Potter books.
• Kavya Shivashankar, Olathe, Kan. At 11, she's the youngest speller left, but she is also a veteran of last year's prime-time telecast. Kavya favors the spelling the word in the hand method. Her favorite movie? Spellbound, of course.
• Nithya Vijayakumar, Canton, Mich. She skipped the sightseeing tour on Tuesday to study, which so far appears to be a good decision. The junior blackbelt in karate has been steadily studying about two hours a day in preparation for the big Bee.
• Connor Spencer, Independence, Mo. Hailing from Harry S. Truman's hometown, Connor was in DC last year, but didn't make it past the written test. Away from spelling, Connor plays a mean Irish tin whistle and aspires to speak fluent Elven, the language of Elves from Lord of the Rings. He also breeds parakeets.
• My apologies to fans of Matthew Evans, Prateek Kohli, Amy Chyao, and Isabel Jacobson, I ran out of time. As noted above, though, official bios are here. 10 minutes or so until the Finals!