13-year-old girl wins spelling bee

[DesertFox]

Darlene Superville
Associated Press
2 June 06


A 13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee rattled off "ursprache" to claim the title of America's best speller Thursday on prime-time television.

Katharine Close, an eighth-grader at the H.W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, N.J., is the first girl since 1999 to win the national spelling title. She stepped back from the microphone and put her hands to her mouth upon being declared the winner. She recognized the word as soon as she heard it.

More (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPELLING_BEE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US)

[DeclinetoState]

June 1, 2006 — David Tidmarsh savored his time in the spotlight after winning the 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Tidmarsh, who was 14 at the time, received stacks of mail from around the world, shook hands with President Bush, and played an unscripted gag on David Letterman's show.

As Letterman tested the champ's spelling skills, Tidmarsh pretended to faint. Let it be known that Tidmarsh was not the speller who actually fainted on stage — that was the 2004 runner-up, 13-year-old Akshay Buddiga.


ABC News.go.com (http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2026770&page=1)

[Riverboat]

I watched that. "You would," said the wife. As if that were a bad thing. But, then, I've always been somewhat perspicacious.

It's the middle of baseball season, but the Astros aren't on rabbit ears, the end of basketball season, the beginning/middle/end of fake football season (IOW, I don't give a flying F), the Yoo-Row-Pee-Ans are always kicking that infernal round thing with the pentagons like a team of liberals on CNN. . . .

Spelling bee? Hell, yeah!

[Eagle1]

"ursprache"???

i dont even know what that is, let alone how to pronounce it

[DesertFox]

OOR-sprocka. Parent language, as German is the parent language of English (English derived from German).

[Riverboat]

i dont even know what that is, let alone how to pronounce itOn the Glen Beck Program, the host laughed about the surnames of the contestants, and said, "If you can spell your own last name, chances are you'll do well in a spelling bee."

[DeclinetoState]

A lot of the winners of spelling bees are kids with polysyllabic Indian surnames (and first names, as well--in some cases). I was surprised this winner had a somewhat conventional sounding name.

How many spelling bee winners are named Lakeisha or Lamont?