2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee

[Sponger.]

I can't believe I'm actually watching this [censored].

[RacersEdge]

This picture of this kid is hilarious:

[El Diablo]

All,

Just watched West coast feed. Thoughts....

Diablo: "Do any of you worry that Samir does not have the killer attitude it takes to close this thing out?"

I called it, guys. How did he go out?

Evan: "Would a win in a spell off against Samir top your joke off victory over Tre Parker?"

No.

mmbt: "How bad is it that I immediately thought that this Saryn Hooks girl had serious upward cute potential."

Natural.

d: "Charlie Allegar because I think he could kick my ass."

Danny Alamonte. (Exactly, sigh!)

Al: "This Horton kid is weirdly growing on me, with his whole talking into his hand thing."

Yes.

Edge: "Couldn't possibly be distracted by little things like hanging out with the other kids."

Last person to have this kind of focus was Ivan Drago.

Edge: "RAJIV GOES BUSTO!!!"

Once they gave that "he sure knows he's the favorite" buildup and background clip, you knew he was toast. But the HY for the German word was an uncharacteristic and unexpected mental error, not the way you'd think he'd go down.

Al: "Edge - Indians have really, really let me down today W-T-F!"

A sad day. At least the Canadian didn't win, though.

Edge: "Are they giving the Canadian girl FRENCH words every time? Wow. "

Yes, W T F !

All: Damn Germans, I feel for that chick! I knew she'd get it right if she got the W, which she should have. Actually a pretty easy word, I thought.

Fed: "Finola=Winnie Cooper? "

Nice.

RE: "OK, I want a list of names of all the nerds in this thread who actually watched this thing."

FU, baby, it ruled.

[Apathy]

[ QUOTE ]
Evan: "Would a win in a spell off against Samir top your joke off victory over Tre Parker?"

No.


[/ QUOTE ]

Details please?


[ QUOTE ]
Al: "Edge - Indians have really, really let me down today W-T-F!"

A sad day. At least the Canadian didn't win, though.


[/ QUOTE ]


hahahaha, fu.



[ QUOTE ]
RE: "OK, I want a list of names of all the nerds in this thread who actually watched this thing."

FU, baby, it ruled.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was an awesome watch, I have already invented a drinking game to go along with it for the future.

[MicroBob]

Watched the finals tonight.

Thoughts: ABC did a pretty solid job with this. Not typically a Robin Roberts fan, but she was pretty good. Certainly much better than the typical ESPN announcers who mess this up.
Chris Connely did a very nice job on the interviews of those who got knocked out.

The features on the various kids were okay.
Not wholly necessary...but not too terribly intrusive.


Finola has some serious cuteness potential too.
Perhaps almost cuter than Winnie in my book.

I was rooting for her...but later not so much because I thought it was really unfair that she kept getting French words.

Carrie Close had some serious tells on her.
She would ask for the definition just because it was her routine, but you could tell she was just waiting for the guy to shut-up because she already knew how to spell the word.


Finally, I still don't like the clock. I think the kids are deserving of a little more time.
They only started the clock in 2004.
Specifically, if a word had 4 different pronounciations and also has a definition that is about 50 words long then I think the kid shouldn't be "penalized" when compared with a different speller with a single-pronounciation word and a 3 word definition.

I would recommend not starting the clock until after the kid gets the all the pronouncers 2x (and judges confirm he has it correct) and also gets the definition.
You can just make the definition standard right after the word instead of having the kid have to ask for it every time.


Also, they need to watch how they arrange the championship word-order list so that one speller doesn't get 5 straight French words or something.

[Lottery Larry]

I saw the very end last night (poker game stopped to see it).

Pretty awesome seeing her face, when she realized that she had the word and the title nailed, BEFORE she got past two letters. Great surge.