THERE'S NO LINK BETWEEN DIABETES AND DIET. THAT'S A WHITE MYTH, KEN, LIKE "LARRY BIRD" AND "COLORADO": God bless blogger Aaron Cohen for compiling every single thing Tracy Jordan said this year on '30 Rock'.

SATURDAY NIGHT SPELLER SPECIAL: A few more to add since our last update:

• The remarkable Yulkendy Valdez (Ferguson, MO), who spoke no English when her family moved here from the Dominican Republic in 2005. See also this NPR story.
• Three-timer Andrew Lay (Stanley, NC), creator of one of the best reaction shots in Bee history.
• Daniel Rosenberg (Marblehead, MA), who's blogging his exploits.
• Émilie Lafleur (Saint-Lambert, QC), a returning part of the Canadian invasion.
• More on Shonda fave (and four-timer) Keiko Bridwell (Duncan, SC), who says she can spell meningoencephalomyelitis and also won first place in the state Youth Bible Drill this year.
• Liam Twight (Redding, CA) wasn't allowed to leave the school assembly in his honor on Friday until he spelled a certain word from a Mary Poppins song. Of his chances this year, he says "I'm not expecting to win. I'm just going to enjoy the museums and the sites."
• Gina Liu (Charleston, IL) considers herself to be "one of those far-off people," claiming she does "stranger things by other people’s standards, like obsess about Tolkien and quote ‘Pride and Prejudice’ with my friends." Oh, Gina, wait until you find blogs. You'll fit in just fine.

And as in years past, there are sites on which you can make wagers on this year's Bee, including the gender/sibling status/glasses-wearing of the winner, length and part of speech of the final word, and a "who goes farthest?" between returning prime-timers Sidharth Chand (+180), Kyle Mou (+150) and Kavya Shivashankar (+125).

"ROUTINE EXPEDITION," MY ASS:In honor of the new movie, Sci-Fi will be running marathons of Land of the Lost all day Memorial Day, as well as for huge blocks next week. Wander through the strange, wonderful, and marvelous world of Sid and Marty Krofft.

NON-FLEETING EXPLETIVE PREVENTION FAIL: Or did the producers not bother to review the lyrics to "Longview" before presenting Green Day on 'Good Morning America'?

NEVER HAS A MAN BEEN IN A MORE WRONG PLACE AT A MORE WRONG TIME: 75 movies every man should see.

A SONG, A BOOK, A BUILDING: For no particular reason except that it's Friday and I'm exhausted from all of the Fox competitive reality:

Let's Talk About Spaceships, Say Hi To Your Mom;
2666, Roberto Bolaño;
Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi, Asymptote Architecture.

I LEARNED THAT PRIDE ALSO GETS YOU. NOW I KNOW HOW TOUGH IT IS: Across the country, local papers are profiling their regional entrants into next week's National Spelling Bee. Some that caught my eye this morning include Stephen Hartline (Marietta, GA OH) (of the title quote); Nicholas Rushlow (Pickerington, NJ) (favorite words: Bhutatathata, scuttlebutt); Andrew Logsdon (Harrisonburg, VA) (sitzmark, turriculate); Eliette Albrecht (Greenwood, SC) (monocoque, anythingarian and humuhumunukunukuapua’a); Michaela Minock (Peotone, IL) (uintjie) and four-timer Vaibhav Vavilana (Carmel, IN) (no favorite word).

Meanwhile, the St. Joseph News-Press checks in with 2009 entrant Morgan Brown and takes a look at what's happened to Northwest Missouri's prior finalists since 1992.