Hegemony! Kavya Shivashankar became the 8th Indian kid to win the Spelling Bee. (Sameer Mishra won it last year.)
She's a 13 year old from Olathe, Kansas. Kept spelling out every word on her palm. Amazing kid - really, all these kids just blew me away. ABC did a phenomenal job of presenting these kids as interesting, regular personalities. So far removed from just a few years ago, when the Spelling Bee was synonymous with useless regurgitation or a sport for the socially inept.
My only quibble was the requisite zoom in on the kids who'd just spelled a word wrong and were burying their faces in their hands. Give them their dignity, ABC.
Here's Kavya's word-journey to immortality:
| 1 | Round One Test | |
| 4 | ergasia | ergasia |
| 5 | kurta | kurta |
| 6 | escritoire | escritoire |
| 7 | hydrargyrum | hydrargyrum |
| 8 | blancmange | blancmange |
| 9 | baignoire | baignoire |
| 10 | huisache | huisache |
| 11 | ecossaise | ecossaise |
| 12 | diacoele | diacoele |
| 13 | bouquiniste | bouquiniste |
| 14 | isagoge | isagoge |
| 15 | phoresy | phoresy |
| 16 | Laodicean | Laodicean |
