A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I WAS HARDLY THINKING. I WAS JUST SPELLING WORDS: 2007 National Spelling Bee Champion Evan O'Dorney gives a valedictory interview to USA Today:

Q: What advice would you give this year's spellers?
A: I'd tell them that the last round is never the hardest round. Each year, there has been one killer round. In '05 it was round 8, in '06 it was round 7, and in '07 it was round 6. So they should be prepared for one killer round. And they should know what makes the hard round so hard is that they use words that you can't spell based on language patterns. You might call them easier because they look more like they sound, but they're still harder to spell. There's a lot of luck.

Q: It's the first year in three years you haven't competed in the bee. What are you doing instead this spring?
A: I'm doing math competitions. Math is what I enjoy most.

Q: What about math do you like so much?
A: I like everything that has to do with math. I'm in a linear algebra class at (the University of California at) Berkeley right now. ...

Q: What are your summer plans?
A: It seems like so long since I've had a summer because last summer was so busy with interviews. I'm looking forward to a break to have some fun.

edited to add: Welcome to all our visitors from the Grey's Writers blog and TVTattle, and we look forward to your joining us all week long, including our live Bee coverage on Thursday and Friday. To get a sense of what it'll be like, click here for the 2007 coverage and keep scrolling upwards; the "by Writers" posts are all Shonda's, and we are thrilled she's back for a fourth straight year.