WELCOME TO ROUND FOUR:  Forty spellers remain; we are live on ESPN2 at 10am with results online here.

The rules don't seem to say when they'll stop today; presumably, it'll be when a round finishes with 8-12 spellers remaining, but ... it doesn't say, does it?

(Unfortunately, I have a variety of work obligations for much of the day, but I will be popping in whenever I can. Let's hope for some great performances by these kids.)

THE 2017 SPELLING BEE POOL: Forty amazing spellers remain.

Our rules are not too different from years past. It looks like there's a few spellers back this year who were in past prime time rounds -- Tejas Muthusamy (2014-15), Sreeniketh Vogoti (2016), Rutvik Gandhasri (2016). Siyona Mishra (2015), and Jashun Paluru (2016).

So: pick two spellers, only one of whom can be from among those five. While individual spellers can be used more than once, you cannot repeat the same pairing that someone else has already submitted. First come, first served, and you cannot choose a speller once s/he spells a second time tomorrow.

You will get one point for each word your spellers correctly spell during today's rounds of the Bee, which resumes at 10am eastern on ESPN2. Most points wins; tiebreaker will be whoever has the individual speller going the furthest. Do not edit your entry after you've made it; if you need to make corrections, reply to your original comment.

It's my blog, so I go first: Based on absolutely no prep whatsoever, I'll take Rutvik Gandhasri and Shourav Dasari, who placed just short of prime time last year.

Previous pool winners are Elicia Chamberlin in 2006 (Close/Hooks), Professor Jeff and Amy tied in 2007 (O'Dorney and Thomas/Horton), KJ in 2008 (Mishra/K Shivashankar), Cagey (K Shivashankar/Pastapur) in 2009, Bob Loblaw/Jenn tied in 2010 (Veeramani and Chemudupaty/Denniss); 2011's winner was Nupur Lala (the Roy/Ye Keystone combo); Bobby in 2012 (Nandipati/Mahankali); Sara Miller in 2013 (Mahankali/Sivakumar), Bobby again in 2014 (Venkatachalam/Hathwar), Adam C in 2015 (Venkatachalam/Shafer-Ray), and Victoria last year (Hathwar/Kumar).  Good luck.

ROUND THREE:  259 spellers remain.  I'll update as events/work warrant and allow.

1:30pn.  Only 2/5 survive so far.  Bloodbath in progress?

NAOMI ZARIN OF GRAY, MAINE, COME ON DOWN!  The first of 291 spellers is on ESPN3.  Two rounds today, both ding-and-out, and at least last year the first one was easy (251/284) and the second only slightly less so.

8:20 am: Live results here; 21/23 correct so far. The words have been suhr-MOUN-tuh-buhl and haven't led anyone into a-po-PLEKS-ee.

1pm: 259/291 advance.

REJOIN THE WARNER BROTHERS (AND THE WARNER SISTER, DOT)?  Don't call it a comeback, yet.  But it might be.

P.S. Gratuitous Slappy the Squirrel at Woodstock,

WELCOME TO BEE WEEK 2017:  And here's what's different about this year's Bee:

• Today's prelim test is handwritten, not computerized multiple-choice. 
• There is a tiebreaker test in case the finalists exhaust the Championship Words list, which sounds so stupid that I will not repeat its components.  I will instead say, as I have always said: either let them keep spelling all night long, or live with a tie -- whatever spellers of this level would prefer.
• It also looks like, for the first time I can remember, the kids are in random order, not sorted by state.

Today's the written spelling/vocab test.  Live spelling starts tomorrow AM.

P.S. to Shonda: one Jamaican, seven Canadians. 

VERY WELL. IF THAT IS THE WAY THE WINDS ARE BLOWING, LET NO ONE SAY THAT I ALSO DO NOT BLOW:  Okay, we'll try to blog the Bee here (at least) one more time. Let's have the AP's Ben Nuckols set the table for what the modern Bee is:

To the fans watching on ESPN, Nihar Janga’s win last year in the Scripps National Spelling Bee was a shock: He was only 11 years old, a fifth-grader appearing in the bee for the first time, competing against 8th-graders with deep voices and facial hair. 

To the tightknit community of spellers and ex-spellers who track performances leading up to the bee, Nihar was something else: a seasoned competitor with an impressive resume and a threat to win it all.

As the bee has become increasingly difficult, spellers are less likely to come out of nowhere and hoist the trophy. There’s more information available about kids in the bee, and champion spellers have increasingly fit a familiar profile. For them, the bee is an all-consuming, year-round pursuit.... 

For this year’s bee, which starts Tuesday, three spellers are consensus favorites: Shourav Dasari, a past North South Foundation and South Asian Spelling Bee champion whose older sister came close several times; Siyona Mishra, who won last year’s South Asian bee and finished 9th in her only National Spelling Bee appearance; and Tejas Muthusamy, who’s making his fourth appearance, with two previous top-10 finishes.