[NEWZ] Indiana Boy Wins Spelling Bee

[Buck]

A 14-year old boy from South Bend, Indiana wins the U.S. Spelling Bee.

The champion was David Tidmarsh, whose final winning word was "autochthonous," meaning indigenous.

Tidmarsh, from South Bend, Indiana, also triumphed over such spelling nightmares as "sumpsimus," "sophrosyne" and "serpiginous."

For me, this is the best part:

Asked if the experience was as good as Hollywood could make it, Tidmarsh replied, "It's even better."

 

[sechs]

I'm far more impressed by the kids in the National Geography Bee.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm more impressed by the kids in "Barely Legal".

So, raise your hand if you knew what "autochthonous" meant before you saw Buck's post.

 

[sechs]

Those aren't kids, Merc.

 

[Mercutio]

Well, not technically. That's the point.

 

[CougTek]

So, raise your hand if you knew what "autochthonous" meant before you saw Buck's post.

I did, but I have an advantage. In French, we call the Indians "autochthones", so autochthonous wasn't too hard to figure out.

 

[sechs]

I think that a French spelling bee would be far more challenging -- with all of those letters that aren't pronounced, and all.

 

[timwhit]

I was watching the National Geographic bee a couple weeks ago. The questions were really hard and studying a dictionary for 4 hours a day won't help either.

I had no idea what the winning word meant.