A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

SPY HARD: Intrigue at the Spelling Bee -- who is this mysterious Christopher Combee? An obviously fabricated name, since the double-initial is the giveaway tic of a fiction writer. And Combee comes in as Speller No. 275, slipping into the end of the line, whistling tunelessly, as if nobody would notice him, as if two-hundred-and-seventy-four champion spellers would not notice Polk County, Florida appending itself to a tail of West Virginias and Wisconsins and Wyomings. But Combee carries himself with the confidence of a true agent, and meets every questioning glance with a hard stare. "Move along, Amari Bertagnolli," his steely eyes say, "because I myself am like thunder and lightning, and should you fall out of line, I will teach you brontophobia."