May 30, 2014

"These two amazing young men, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, truly could have gone all night."

"Having outlasted 279 of their colleagues, they went toe-to-toe, round after round, demonstrating their facility across every challenge the English language could provide."
There was no reason to go past twenty-two rounds and the limits of the Championship Word List, because neither of these boys was better than the other tonight. Both were outstanding. All that would have happened, had this gone further, was one would have gotten lucky and the other, not—but neither would have been "better" in any meaningful sense.
And: "The competition was against the dictionary, not each other,"  said Sriram, in a nice demonstration of grace and style... to go with the fantastic spelling.

20 comments:

Wince said...

"Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, now spell for me "white privilege'".

How Asians Became White

MisterBuddwing said...

Fascinating how certain people's regard for this event has plunged over the years along with the prevalence of winners of Indian descent. It does my heart good to read comment threads where people complain about a "foreigner" winning. And even when people try to be complimentary, it sometimes comes out as, "Why can't American kids do as well?"

jr565 said...

No ties.
It shouldn't have ended in a fight to the death in an arena with various weapons strewn around. Two men enter one man leaves. And the winner wins the spelling Bee.

Levi Starks said...

If at the end of the contest there isn't a winner, then it see no point in having the competition.

kdp said...

Yes both are Indian Descent kids and not Americans because what could be more unamerican than spelling correctly?

mrs whatsit said...

One of those "foreigners" is from the small, historically very white indeed upstate NY town where my large extended family has its roots. Most of us don't live there any more, but my Facebook page was absolutely awash with celebration this morning. If anybody cares about that boy's skin color or ethnic heritage, you couldn't prove it by my family or their friends from that town. Foreigner? What foreigner? He's a kid from Painted Post and he won the spelling bee!

Curious George said...

NOT FAIR! They didn't axe them the hard words.

kdp said...

Yes these kids are of Indian descent and not American because what could be more "UNAMERICAN" than spelling correctly?

Smilin' Jack said...

"Having outlasted 279 of their colleagues, they went toe-to-toe, round after round, demonstrating their facility across every challenge the English language could provide."

I caught a little of this last night. Most of the words I saw had nothing to do with the English language.

Bob R said...

"There are no more worlds to conquer!" Alexander

"There are no more words to spell!" Scripps

FWBuff said...

Mrs. Whatsit, Fort Worth is celebrating today over Ansun's victory, too! He is a hometown hero at 13.

Alex said...

Levi Starks - that's a very typical American attitude. Why must there always be a "winner"? Why can't we all win?

Austin said...

Actually, the Spelling Bee fell into disrepute several years ago when home schoolers did exceptionally well. At that time, the mainstream media sneered that it was nothing other than simple memorization. Now they breathlessly tells us how brilliant the winners are. And yeah, everyone knows how dumb American kids are; they can't spell, cant' do math, and don't know geography. Still, Americans somehow managed to find Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oh, and find their way to the moon. Yup, just a bunch of dumb Americans.

The Crack Emcee said...

EDH,

"'Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, now spell for me "white privilege'".

How Asians Became White"

It's so interesting, watching some of you wrestle with this country's racism, without a clue how you mangle the story because - as always, and as products of your racist culture - you (and good ol' Eugene) can't help but focus is on the brown and blacks while ignoring the enormous contributions of those who have always been America's racial prime movers:

The whites who, we must remember, once didn't let the Italians, the Irish, or the Jews carry their banner - it's a very exclusive club - one whites deny exists, though history tells another story.

Yep, keep leaving white PEOPLE out of the story of racism, and you'll get busted for lying (almost) every time,...

mccullough said...

I watched the highlights on ESPN. Seemed to be more boys than girls at this competition.

Microsoft should hire these kids to improve the vocabulary of its Word program. Lot of squiggly red lines because the program doesn't recognize a recondite word.

Owen said...

Crack really is a pitiable creature. For him, the sky isn't blue, the grass isn't green, they're racist.

Nichevo said...

As I've said, Crack, I could care less about "your" sports or musical "achievements." If you want to impress me, do this. Yeah I know you can't. Not in a million years.

Thugz and azz and niggaz and Trayvon Traevon Traivon Tamiqua Jemima Souljah Badonkadonk Gonorrhea Ahmed Ahmad Drew Dru Droo you can't even spell your own names, how can whitey expect you to spell let alone define "apodictical" or "holluschickie?" Selling drugs and causing pain doesn't require a vocabulary.

Austin said...

I recently watched a young female comedian do a routine in which she said that Google should have a search engine specifically for African-American parents. That way, she said, when the parents were searching for the perfect name for their baby, and entered "Shaniqua" into the engine, the display result would say "sorry, no Shaniqua was found-did you mean Jennifer". It was very funny.

The Crack Emcee said...

Nichevo,

"If you want to impress me, do this. Yeah I know you can't. Not in a million years."

Yeah - because you linked to nothing - and that's not my thing.

If you mean America - blacks are responsible for civilization itself - so you're a little late to the party, for bragging rights, suck up,..

But, looked at another way, there's a guy in Africa, sitting next to a fire, who's never hurt anyone, never polluted the Earth, and never had to deceive anyone - including himself - to get where he is.

White people could learn a lot,...

Job said...

My kids do academic competitions in a mostly white suburb of a medium sized American city. A grossly disproportionate % of their competition consists of children of Indian and Chinese immigrants.

I had to explain to my kids that there are many Americans of recent Indian and Chinese descent in these competitions because US immigration law greatly favors highly educated immigrants. Most of their competitors' parents have PhDs or MDs.

My kids were disappointed to learn that the average person in Beijing or Mumbai is not a genius.

PS: Good for Siriam and Ansun. Great job, guys.