s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g b-e-e

This weekend I landed one of the more unique assignments I've had (certainly the one which got the most reaction when I told people). I attended the National Spelling Bee as a credentialed representative for the Associated Press (no, I didn't write the story you read in your paper. I was assisting.)

The oddest thing about being at the spelling bee, other than the fact I was at a spelling bee, was the atmosphere. The finals of the bee were held Friday night and were shown on ABC, which meant one thing to the audience: we were subjected to TV time-outs.

The setting was a hotel conference room, and there were no monitors set up to show ABC's coverage. So to start, a couple of kids would walk in front of the mic, spell a word, then everyone would wait and go dead quiet as an announcement as made: ABC is in a five-minute commercial break. ABC is showing a taped feature. ABC is in a six-minute commercial break.
Then another couple kids would spell, and everything would stop again. I can't imagine this was good for the nerves of whoever was up next when the action stopped.

The finals took just over the two hours allocated, and the pace moved up in the last half hour or so - there was a sigh of relief from the crowd when just before 10 p.m. the producer announced ABC had taken its final commercial break.

The spelling itself was as expected - I can't believe how easy the 12- and 13-year-olds (and even 11- and as young as 8-year-olds) make it seem. I can honestly say of the eight or so rounds we watched Friday night, I was able to spell about four words, which was four more than I'd expected.

And I have to say, I liked the winner. He just had an air about him that said he was having fun with the whole thing.