The finals are here!!!!!!!! This is gonna be a great night. I need some rum!
8:00 - I just realized that ABC is broadcasting in HD. How sweet is that. The Bee in HD!
8:02 - The kids just talked about how Peyton Manning wasn't flawless in the Super Bowl, but they have to be. Oh those sassy middle schoolers.
8:03 - First shot of Samir Patel, hiding his head in shame. That leaves Jonathan Horton as the favorite of the 15 remaining, with only six girls. But girls have won more of these than guys. Intense!
8:06 - Someone just gave bunny ears. Oh those crazy kids!
8:06 - Jonathan Horton steps up to the plate as the first speller of the night. The word being pitched is "girolle." A widely distributed edible mushroom that is rich yellow in color and has a pleasant apricotlike aroma.
8:08 - Jonathan just spent the past two minutes trying to pronounce it. "G-i-r-o-l." And he's out already?!?!? What? That's what's great about this bee. You never know what's going to happen next.
8:11 - The first backstory. Tia Thomas, one of the six girls left. This is her fourth national bee. And she needs some accutane.
8:13 - And now she's up. Good thing ABC got her some makeup. "Zacate." Forage of grassy plants; herbage. She's one of those that writes with her finger. These kids and their crazy kinks. The way this word is pronounced, it makes me want a Tecate. "Z-o-c-a-t-e." One girl down, five to go.
8:16 - Cody Wang, our first Canadian. Yep, don't really know why the Canadians are in the NATIONAL Spelling Bee, but maybe that's just me. "Apozem." And he missed it, spelling with "i" instead of "o". He also said "zed" for "z." Crazy, eh?
8:17 - Nate Gartke, Canadian number two. They better give him a hard word so he gets eliminated too. We can't let a Canadian win our bee. "Partitur." A full musical score showing each part on a separate staff. He got it. Oh, he happens to play the guitar and cello. Of course he knows it.
8:19 - Anqi Dong, the third Canadian. Yep, still bugs me. "Bouleuterion." An ancient Greek council chamber. We have another finger writer. I bet that works great on dates.
8:21 - Another Canadian bites the dust. Woo hoo!
8:22 - Our first commercial break. That was an intense start. More misses than hits. I wonder how long they will go. I also wonder what kind of company advertises on the bee. We've had Olive Garden, Cingular, Advil, Wal-Mart...no clever spelling-commercials yet. This is why the bee is different from the Super Bowl. One you watch for the commercials, one you watch for the drama.
8:25 - And we're back, with Stuart Scott doing the first post-misspell interview of the night. Aw, poor Jonathan is in tears. His favorite basketball player is Steve Nash. Too bad that's not the same of David Stern.
8:26 - Our first comedian of the night. Joseph Henares. Apparently he says "oh my God" after ever word is announced. "Punaise." A bedbug. He said he prefers "bedbug." Man, this kid is set for life. He'll be trying out for "Last Comic Standing" next week. And he got it, much to his surprise. He just became my new favorite to win.
8:28 - Mujer numero dos. Claire Zhang from Jupiter, Florida. "Urgrund." A primal cause or ultimate cosmic principle. Sounds German. Ah, she added a "t" to the end. She was so close. Another chica says adios.
8:31 - The second backstory. Kavya Shivashankar. Another girl. Um, equal opportunity please. Oh, but her cute little sister who wants to grow up to be in the bee just spelled my favorite word, "humuhumunukunukuapuaa." I'll be rooting for the little sister in a couple of years.
8:33 - Now our third girl gets her word. "Cilice." A shirt or undergarment made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance. This one's got some crazy pronunciation, so this could be difficult. "C-i-l-i-s." Another girl gone. They are dropping life flies. Six kids already eliminated. Intense!
8:36 - Commercial break number two. And while we step away, this live blogging was fueled by a number 6 at Wendy's. I was excited when they announced the 99-cent buffalo crispy chicken sandwich there. Then I had it. It's horrible. Really just bad. All they need to do was shrink their spicy chicken sandwich. Call in Wayne Szalinkski (spell that, punks!). But they didn't. Boo Wendy's.
8:40 - And we're back with Mike and Mike from ESPN. They look like they belong there like Richard Simmons looks like he belongs at Hooters (wait, they wear the same type of clothes...hmm...).
8:42 - Nithya Vijayakumar. If you can't tell, that's our fourth girl. "Pelorus." Etymology unknown. I love it when they stick them with one of those. And now she's the first person of this round to enter finish time. Drama. And she missed it. All the girls that have gone up have struck out this round. Can the last two keep the females alive??
8:45 - Connor Spencer. His word is German to Yiddish. Yikes, don't wanna know how that happened. "Helzel." And he conquers!
8:47 - Matt Evans with backstory number 3. This kid just spouted off "Hamlet." Not funny kid. I hope you study engineering. "To b-e-e or to not b-e-e. That is the question." Ugh. Let's hope he misses "genizah." No such luck....he advances.
8:49 - I just heard someone's cell phone go off in the spelling room. Show some class, people!
8:50 - Commercial break number 3. I really want to know how much 30 seconds of advertising time costs for this thing. It must be a bargain.
8:51 - An ad for the new "Fantastic Four" movie. Seriously, who is going to go see this? Well, probably someone sitting at home watching a spelling bee...but...um...I'm not going to go!
8:54 - Our first musical number from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Bee." Now we know the rules...54 minutes in. Don't you think that should have come sooner??
8:56 - The last girl steps up. Amy Chyao. Not to judge a book by its cover, but she looks capable. I'd bet she makes it. "Grognard." An old soldier. Oh, and she's a finger speller! She only does it when she's nervous. She knows all of...most of...some of...a few people of America are watching. And she takes bonus time. Don't let me down Chyao! And she does...only one girl can make it to the next round.
9:00 - Backstory number four. Guess what? It's a girl. Isabel Jacobson. Wow. Total slight to the guys left. And this chick has 25 bracelets on her arm as good luck charms. "Helodes." And she nails it. I bet it was the 25th bracelet that did it. Just 24 wouldn't have cut it.
9:02 - One girl left. And that's the end of this round. Seven remain.
9:03 - Commercial. I need a refill.
9:06 - Matt Evans was just called the favorite now by one of the commentators. Boo. Now the backstory on Evan O'Dorney. No more girls left to do. Now he's making some annoying sound. He's the youngest competitor at 13-years-old. Wow, I hope he loses soon. He loves math. He loves the numbers and the patterns. And he just admitted he doesn't like the spelling bee, that he just has to do it. Way to go mom and dad.
9:11 - And we start the next round. Evan O who sailed past "rascacio" in the last round gets "schuhplattler." The definition was a paragraph long. But he knew it.
9:12 - Nate the Canadian is back. Let's see if we can get rid of him with "abseil." He knew it was German. He must be on to us. They must teach German in Canada besides French 'cause he got it.
9:14 - Joseph the comedian is back. My favorite. He threw out the "oh my God." Didn't get the big laugh this time. He needs new material fast because he can't go out this round. "Triticale." He got it! Use that chair time to work on your routine.
9:16 - Commercial. Juicy Juice! Yeah, now we're talking.
9:21 - Connor Spencer just missed his word. Which brings us to Matt Evans. Please miss it. Miss it! He's sweating. And he missed it! Take that! Telling you, money is on Joseph the comedian.
9:25 - Prateek Kohli, facial hair and all, nails "randkluft."
9:26 - Isabel is up to keep the girls alive. "Epaulement." And she doesn't even flinch. Five make it to the next round. It's all about the bracelets, baby.
9:27 - After the commercial break we hear about the kids visit to the White House. You know the White House. Home to a great speller. Can anyone spell "nuclear?"
9:31 - Oh, they met Laura Bush. She made them spell government words. How cute! I bet they spent a long time thinking of that!
9:33 - Evan O up to start the next round. "Laquear." Bam! He's moving on.
9:34 - The Canadian's back. And they gave him a French word. "Rognon." He didn't waste anytime. Ridiculous. Maybe next round...give him some Armenian word. Bet he didn't study that!
9:38 - We get a visit from the "Mary Poppins" cast. Yeah, we all know there's a big word in that.
9:39 - Joseph the man's back (yep, he's the man now)! "Aniseikonia." A defect of binocular vision in which the two retinal images of the same object are of unequal size. If he nails this he really is the man. NOOOOOOO!!! He threw in some "c's". I don't want to watch anymore. This is like the Phoenix Suns going out of the NBA playoffs.
9:42 - Facial hair's turn. He gets a Polish word. "Oberek." And he can't handle the truth. So championship words will be used after this round no matter what happens with our sole lady.
9:43 - And speaking of, here she goes. Wow. If she nails this word, she's the man! "Cyanophycean." A blue-green alga. Use those bracelets, just like Wonder Woman. And it wasn't good enough. She's not the man.
9:46 - And then there were two. Evan O and the Canadian. If the moose wins this one, no more spelling bee for me. I'll dog it for years to come. I won't be able to bear it. I'm so good...championship words after the break.
9:48 - Another "Fantastic Four" commercial. I just puked a little in my mouth.
9:50 - Let's see if ABC can wrap this up in the 10 minutes left. Evan O looks like he's about to make out with his mom. Must be home-schooled.
9:51 - Evan O bats first. "Zoilus." And hits a homerun.
9:52 - The canuck "metaphorically picks the wings of the butterflies in his stomach when he's nervous." Get this kid in therapy stat! Perhaps after "vituline." Of, relating to, or like a calf or veal. Argh! He makes it.
9:55 - Commercial. This baby is going overtime.
9:56 - I have a sudden craving for gummy bears. Weird.
9:57 - Just grabbed a handful of gummy bears. Be prepared.
9:58 - Here we go Evan O! Yeah, put that on a t-shirt. "Pappardelle." He made that look easy. Championship word? "Oh please," says Evan O.
9:59 - Mountie..."videlicet." Too easy too. Come on!
10:00 - Another commercial. Wow. Milk it, ABC.
10:01 - Kelly Ripa in a commercial. The hottest thing on this channel in more than two hours!
10:04 - Time and temperature from Commerce Bank.
10:04 - Evan O, ready to kick "yosenabe" to the curb because he's a black belt. But even I could spell that one. Too easy.
10:05 - Eskimo must battle "coryza." He didn't take his time and....MISSES! (Another use of "zed"...crazy Canadians.)
10:06 - Evan O must nail this word to claim the prize and keep the Northerners down (or is it up?). "Serrefine." I hope he goes crazy when he spells this. He nails it and...nothing. Wow. Jump around a little bit kid.
10:07 - He's presented the trophy and can barely hold it up. Who cares! The Canadian got schooled. He back to across the border now before we sick Homeland Security on you. And even though Evan O doesn't like spelling bee, he likes it a little bit more now. Just a little bit. Way to protect the homeland. Hi-ya!
10:11 - And we're out. Wow...must we wait another year? They should start broadcasting regional play. Then really build up to this event. Now that would be sweet.
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