Wednesday, June 1, 2011

IT BEGINS: The official list of Semifinalists has been posted!

For the spellers (and for the serious Bee junkies out there), this is the longest mile of the Bee. The waiting. The stress that comes with moving from the ESPN 3 web cast today to the national TV screens via ESPN tomorrow.

There’s something magical and strange about the Bee. We take kids at their most vulnerable stage – that awkward lanky phase somewhere around puberty – and we put them on television and we watch them spell. Really, think about the oddity of it. Tiny humans stand up before an audience. And they spell words. They succeed. They fail. And, either way, we can’t stop watching.

I think our fascination is driven by the remarkable display of intelligence in a world that devalues intelligence. The show of hard work in a world that has come to value fame over actual achievement. I think it is the old-fashioned, elegance of brains over brawn. We like to spell along, we like to marvel at their genius, we like to picture who these brainiacs will grow to become. That’s why we like to watch.

Also, because sometimes kids faint while spelling.

More to come after I study the list of Semifinalist Spellers!

26 comments:

  1. First impressions: 

    Both Canadian ladies are in. Joanna Ye, Nicholas Rushlow, Sriram Hathwar, Jamaica's Hanif Brown, several Keystone Staters and the awesomely named Dakota Jones. 

    Four-timer Rahul Malayappan did not qualify.

    It took 29 points to qualify -- in other words, 23/25 yesterday, perfect today.

    My gut tells me that our Pool rule will be that you can't have more than six years of experience from your pair -- if you take Newcombe or Ye, you have to take a rookie or two-timer to complement.

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  2. Whoa. Juliana Canabal-Rodriguez didn't qualify either.

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  3. Marsha6:13 PM

    Ethan Ruggeri is out, Rahul is out, and, most sadly for me, Juliana Canabal-Rodriguez is out.

    Siddarth Varanasi may be my favorite name. So majestic.

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  4. Nupur6:14 PM

    I'll go first. Sukanya Roy and Joanna Ye are my two picks. Sukanya has done well enough both years to be a very serious contender. She's spelled some hard words and remains collected as she spells. She doesn't have the added pressure of the media expectations and hype surrounding the ladies from the North or the cool and confident Joanna. Sukanya can fly under the radar, swoop in and win this thing. Joanna Ye is the obvious other favorite. She's so calm, so cool and most importantly, looks like she isn't taking this thing seriously to the point where she could choke. Also, she spelled some hard words last year so that wasn't a lucky flash-in-the-pan performance. The field is much deeper than I anticipated. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow. Here's to the first-timer wowing us, the inevitable flame-out of a top contender in round 5 or 6 and finally, the moment we've all been waiting for when the champion is crowned.

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  5. BeeFan6:16 PM

    Some unusual non-spelling skills among the contenders - from jelly-bean guessing (I presume this means guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar) to memorizing 800 digits of pi to hacky sack.

    Five years experience?  That narrows things a bit ...

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  6. Nupur6:18 PM

    Dang, 23/25? That's impressive. Now the cap of 50 doesn't seem so low anymore...

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  7. Nupur6:21 PM

    I'm so sad. The kids this year are so interesting. I was enchanted by the talents of Miles Shebar, who was runner-up in his school's talent show for impersonating Britney Spears, and Savannah Aldrige, whose cupcake baking and tote bag skillz made me think she's better suited to living in Williamsburg rather than Clarksburg. Honestly, I would've loved for them all to get more air time. 

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  8. And now I think there'll be no cap. With only one four-timer in the mix, I might as well make it a free-or-all.<span> </span>

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  9. Interesting--two kids from Plano (affluent suburb north of Dallas), one of whom qualified through the Dallas paper's bee and the other of whom qualified through Ft. Worth's paper's bee.  (Looks like one commutes to a charter school in Ft. Worth.)

    Also interesting--I only count 4 home schoolers in the finals.  Often, that number's been much higher.

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  10. When looking at the numbers, we have to consider that there are fewer semifinalists. So four out of 41 is close to the five or six out of 48 from last year.

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  11. I seem to remember that at one point, the percentage was much, much, higher.  I think they cracked down on the rule requiring certification that spelling was not the primary focus of the kid's academic program.  What I find most impressive is how many of these kids have excelled in other areas--Math Olympiad, MathCounts, Science Fairs, Quiz Bowl, OM, etc.

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  12. Eric J.7:10 PM

    This comment and the depth of analysis makes me wish someone would come up with a Sabremetrics of Spelling. 

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  13. Samir7:11 PM

    Obviously, I have to cheer for the Dallas kids.  I haven't really followed the Bee for a few years, so I'm not sure who to pick as the 'favorites.'  Ya'll seem to be going for Laura, the Canadian, and I'll also throw in a homeschooler, Grace Remmer [Speller 38] so I guess that'll be my two-man [or, in this case, two-girl] pool.  

    They're all so cute!  But I think speller 141, 'Dakota Jones,' has the most badass name.  I can't be the only one who thought of Indy?  [The theme music is stuck in my head now.  They should play it on ESPN every time he comes up to spell.  Hey, that's a good idea -- each speller should pick their own theme song.]

    I love all of the bios, especially the one for the very adorable Speller 273, Parker Dietry, who apparently has a twin who is about a foot taller than him.  And the fact that Speller 206, Joanna Ye, is part of something called the "Wednesday Club."  

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  14. Samir7:14 PM

    I can't remember for sure, but I think it was pretty low -- 17 or 19 or something -- my first year.  Either the written test got a lot easier, or the spellers got a lot better?

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  15. isaac_spaceman7:56 PM

    Boo.  I liked Juliana Canabal-Rodriguez.  Why are they killing off all the characters I like? 

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  16. isaac_spaceman7:56 PM

    Ding.  Sabermetrics.  I know it doesn't make sense, but roll with it.

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  17. isaac_spaceman8:02 PM

    Put me down for Pranav Sivakumar, because how can you not love chess, sci-fi, and 800 digits of pi in an 11-year-old, and Nicholas Rushlow, because his name kind of sounds like he could be an author from Brooklyn, like "my name is Jonathan Nicholas Rushlow." 

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  18. isaac_spaceman8:03 PM

    And of course I am deeply disappointed that Agent 275, the Phantom Floridian, is down. 

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  19. I think back then the cut off point was higher--threshold of 90 was it?--so it makes sense that the number of words to get right would be lower. Still pretty crazy how high it is this year though!

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  20. I think back then the cut off point was higher--threshold of 90 was it?--so it makes sense that the number of words to get right would be lower. Still pretty crazy how high it is this year though!

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  21. Heather P8:08 PM

    I'm going for Anja Beth Swoap, mostly because I love her name, and local girl Anahita Iyer.

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  22. Adam C.8:14 PM

    Well, Nupur nabbed the two that my entire family is pulling for (we just finished our family scouting session).  So I'll go with Sukanya and Laura.

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  23. Adam C.8:17 PM

    Absolutely, re: future archaeologist and adventurer Dakota Jones.  And I heartily agree with the idea of individualized walk-up music.  (To steal shamelessly from Bill Simmons:  "G-Good God, that's Sunny Levine's music!")

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  24. Nupur1:02 AM

    Hearing Samir call people "cute" makes me feel so old.

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  25. Nupur1:03 AM

    I think your choice is equally good. Laura looks ready to pwn.

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  26. Nupur1:06 AM

    Aw, shucks. The commentators on this blog could come up with Sabremetrics of Spelling.

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