- Heather Powell remembers the 1983 Bee.
- Raf Noboa's essay on finishing third in the 1991 Bee, the only nationals he entered.
- Samir Patel explains what it's like to come back for a fifth time.
- Mary Ann Grisham describes what this afternoon is like if your daughter is a finalist.
Primetime starts at 8pm eastern. The nine championship finalists are profiled here.
added: Samir talks to Texas Monthly, plugs us, and predicts:
added: Samir talks to Texas Monthly, plugs us, and predicts:
All the spellers remaining have proven to be very competent. They all have different things going for them. For example, Nicholas Rushlow, he’s a five-time repeater, right? So he has lots of experience. Arvind Mahankali, number 162, I believe he came in third last year. You can expect him to put in a good showing as well. Then there’s Frank Cahill, number 30. He is a first timer but has a coach who has won nationals and he looks impressive. For someone who is there his first time, he’s asking all the right questions. So, you know, I think there are a lot of impressive spellers. We’ll just see what happens tonight.
