No bully could spell like this!
Ah, it’s springtime again. Time for picnics, college lacrosse, and the best thing of all…children who can spell antidisestablishmentarianism! The Scripps National Spelling Bee concluded yesterday, with the championship going to California’s own Evan O’Dorney. O’Dorney beat out many other pretenders to the crown, and become the latest in the annals of superstar spellers.
Each year I get jazzed for the Bee. There are two main things that thrill me about it. The first is the pure competition. These young people are under tremendous pressure, studying spelling for years just for this purpose. Jonathan Horton, one of the favorites, had been in the Bee for years, studying hours a day, and then he got the boot on his first word of the final round. Since this was his last year of eligibility…that’s it. His competitive spelling career is essentially over, and he is not even fifteen years old. So watching these kids live and die by the dictionary has a certain appeal.
My favorite example of this is when Akshay Buddiga fainted on stage right in the middle of his turn. A lesser competitor might have accepted help or medical aid, but Akshay had the resolve to get right up and nail the word! This is guts and glory at its finest. And it is not just the kids that take this seriously. This year the parents of ousted favorite Samir Patel appealed his elimination, claiming a pronunciation variation cost him his chance at the title. The appeal was, thankfully, rejected. After all, the Bee was made for winners, not whiners!
The second reason to love the Bee, which I suspect is the main reason for many people watching, is the personalities of the spellers. Many of these kids are home-schooled, and that makes for some interesting sound bytes. The most famous, and one of my favorites, is Rebecca Sealfon, the champion of the 1997 Bee. Rebecca just oozes personality and enthusiasm, as you can see in her spelling the championship word, “euonym”. She knew this word, as she started to celebrate before she actually spelled it. If she had made an error, it would have been similar to Lindsey Jacobellis botching her gold medal in the 2006 Olympics. Thankfully for Rebecca, spelling doesn’t have as much opportunity for showboating. Check out Rebecca’s post game interview. A true classic. And sometimes these kids are funny on purpose too.
My only real complaint with the Bee is that they need to stop buying all the kids’ shirts in the same size. Can’t the National Spelling Bee afford to buy a variety of rugby shirt sizes? Good lord, some of these kids are basically wearing dresses. Sadly, the Bee is now over, and we are left waiting another twelve months for the next generation of whiz kids to make us laugh, cry, cheer, and feel stupid. I for one, cannot wait until next spring. And if I mis-spelled any words in this column, don’t blame me. I went to public skool.
Cartoonish Justice
Sigh…I guess I should have seen this coming. Paris Hilton was released from jail today. Apparently, the waifish celebutante was refusing to eat her prison rations, and this “medical condition” caused her to be sent home for house arrest. There are thousands of people who would pay lots of money to live in Paris’ house for 45 days. Obviously, the system is being bent over and spanked by a rich and powerful family. Is there any way that us little people who don’t own hotel chains can find justice?
What is justice really? According to dictionary.com, justice is the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness. In Paris’ case, there is not much fairness or rightness about her being allowed to break the law and then go home because she doesn’t like jail food. In many cases these days, it seems that personal responsibility is not only being ignored, but the system is encouraging just that. Lewis Libby is going to jail for lying to the authorities in the Valerie Plame case. But no one has been charged with leaking her name to the press, which is an obvious breach of national security. So where is the justice in that? An undercover CIA agent is exposed, and we yawn. So If we are not going to hold our political leaders to high standards for behavior, why should we hold tabloid celebrities to any standard at all?
The problem is that the fault in these matters falls directly on YOU, the reader! And me, of course. All of us who have not written letters to elected officials, or marched in a public demonstration have not done their part in the process. Are we not a government by the people and for the people? Posting on a message board is nice, but ultimately not enough. When CBS cancelled the television show “Jericho”, fans were outraged, and sent 25 tons of peanuts to the network, prompting them to rethink their decision. So it is obvious what we need to do. If you don’t like the Plame investigation, send outraged letters to your local Congressmen and Senators. It sounds played, but you can make a difference if you get involved. Here is a link to the LA country Sheriff’s Department website, where they have listings for all sorts of people you can voice your distress to. Me? I am thinking about whether or not to mail them boxes of cashews or walnuts. Probably the cashews, since they look like deformed peanuts, and (can you feel it coming?), this situation is an example of DEFORMED justice. Snap!
UPDATE: According to TMZ, the release of this prisoner was to prevent her having a nervous breakdown. LA top Sheriff Lee Baca signed off on this, so this goes to show the idiocy goes straight to the top. Because there is no way other prisoners are sitting in their cells being nervous. Is Lee going to send them all home?
UPDATE #2: She’s going back in the clink! Hurray for Cashews! And the filter, for making it happen, of course.
Are Laws Meaningless?
Trolling through the news today, it is clear that this country has a problem. People, and companies made up of people, are not willing to accept the rules that are made for them. Forget Paris Hilton, just for today. In this case, I am talking about the passport regulations that the Bush Administration is “suspending” in order to allow people to go on their vacations to places like Bermuda, Mexico, or parts of the Carribean. I guess the State Department is backed up in processing lots of passport applications, and the government of course doesn’t want to inconvenience anyone’s travel plans. So the people can show a receipt that they are waiting on the application. I pose this question: what would be easier for terrorists to forge: a passport, or a receipt claiming the passport was in the mail? I am thinking the latter. But Bush and his cronies would have us believe that it is worth that risk of less security, so that we can make sure some people who were not keeping their passports up to date properly, can go to Bermuda for some fun in the sun.
This is not an isolated incident. I recall cases like major car manufacturers balking on California emissions/fuel economy regulations. The government will pass tough laws, then people or companies will complain that they “don’t have time” to comply, or that it would be too tough to do it in the time frame dictated. So the government, acting like the big wimp that it is, will often turn tail, and bow to the demands of the corporations, or the complainers. I usually lean liberal/libertarian, but Republicans have been talking about this problem for years. Enforcement of laws is not consistent, and needs to be taken more seriously. Before we change laws or “relax” them, let’s try enforcing them, and then see where we get with that strategy. I will not right now espouse how border/immigration law enforcements might be a good solution to the immigration debate. After all, I need some yard work done this weekend, and I want to pay cash under the table. Ssshh!
