Anurag Kashyap Wins National Spelling Bee

FOXNews/AP ^ | June 02, 2005

[nuconvert]

Anurag Kashyap Wins National Spelling Bee

Thursday, June 02, 2005

WASHINGTON — Bursting into tears, eighth-grader Anurag Kashyap (search) of California became the U.S. spelling champ Thursday, beating out 272 other spellers in a tough two days of competition. He said he felt "just pure happiness."

Anurag, 13, of Poway, clinched "appoggiatura," a melodic tone, to take home some $30,000 in prizes. He won in the 19th round of the 78th Annual National Scripps Spelling Bee.

Also among 27 spellers remaining at the end of the sixth round Thursday afternoon were a half dozen home-schoolers. Home-schooled students have won twice, in 1997 and 2000.

Eighth-grader Hannah Smith, home-schooled in Prior Lake, Minn., laughed and shook her head as though she couldn't believe she'd done it after correctly spelling "nemathelminth," a kind of worm.

Others still on stage included a spelling whiz from Canada and one from Jamaica, the only two foreign students remaining.

Finola Hackett, a seventh-grader in Tofield, Alberta, mastered "whiffet," a small or unimportant person.

Jamaican eighth-grader Stacey-Ann Pearson advanced by spelling "mycetophagous," which means feeding on fungi.

Fellow Jamaican Jody-Anne Maxwell in 1998 became the only foreign student to ever win the competition since it was opened internationally some two decades ago.

Thursday was the second and final day of the 78th annual National Scripps Spelling Bee. On Wednesday, 222 spellers were eliminated from an original field of 273.

"I'll just do the best I can," Louisville, Ky., seventh-grader John Tamplin said Wednesday night after making it through the fourth round by spelling "flamborough." It's an old English sword dance.

Most of the contestants at the bee's start were from the United States and its territories, but 14 were foreign students. There were 11 from Canada and one each from the Bahamas, Jamaica and New Zealand.

[nuconvert]

Or maybe the person was blinded by the glare from some sequins, and couldn't read the definition. ; )

[moog]

Or maybe the person was blinded by the glare from some sequins, and couldn't read the definition. ; )

I wonder which sequen/insial order it was in.

[nuconvert]

You're stretching that sequence, now. ; )

[moog]

I never was a good sequencer. I never could put anything together or take it out.

[nuconvert]

Guess you were never very good at the Hokey Pokey. ;~ )

[nuconvert]

And speaking of the Hokey Pokey..............

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world
at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of
a very important person which almost went unnoticed
last week. Larry La Prise, the man who wrote
"The Hokey Pokey," died peacefully at age 93.
The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into
the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the
trouble started.

[Prince Caspian]

The final word was "sequence". I spelled it "sequins"...

Welcome to the club. My word was "according". I spelled "accordion". Oh well - life goes on.

[yooper]

I took third place as a freshman in one of my high school bee's years ago. I missed "leprechaun" by one letter, "U". And I'm Irish. I've loathed dwarves ever since that day.

[yooper]

"Sequence" and "sequins" are not homophones."

Please. Must we bring gays into every thread on this board. This article is about a spelling bee, not Greenwich Village or San Francisco.

[politicket]

Some of the words seemed particularly easy. Strange indeed. And using a proper word, the name of a medicine?

I was sitting in the ballroom watching the event and the words were definitely not easy in the later rounds. The winning word was actually easier that many of the preceeding words, but still challenging.

The name of a medicine appears in Webster's 3rd and has an etymology of ISV.

All of the children participating did fantastic and are a great group of kids. The Indians look like they'll be "running the show" for many more years...

[al baby]

[OldFriend]

I only watched for a short time and was appalled when one woman commentating for TV said.......

All that work and one LOUSY word can knock you out.

Now, I am paraphrasing but she used the word LOUSY.... and that was really totally inappropriate. One LOUSY word?????????????

[OldFriend]

Care to explain your 'running the show' comment?

Perhaps we ought to have an Asian quota?

[finnigan2]

"He won by being the only contestant who could correctly spell "Anurag Kashyap"

- Runner up was contestant, "Igonna Shutyoyap" who credited his near win to his love of rap music.

[politicket]

All that work and one LOUSY word can knock you out.

I agree. That "lady" was awful! She should have just shut up and let the audience watch the kids spell. Her verbal input brought the show down.

[Onelifetogive]

No definition? That doesn't sound fair.

It was out of sequence.

How about:

"The dress was out of sequins."

[politicket]

Care to explain your 'running the show' comment?

Sure...I meant it as a high compliment to them. They have a whole different level of perseverence and diligence from many children not raised in their culture. They have established a national network, via computer, where they all train together year-round.

There is absolutely no way that a child of non-Indian descent will win without putting in more effort than that (and I don't see it happening for a number of years).

No, there should not be an Asian quota. However, there should be consistency in the national rules:

All of the children are sent to nationals from newspaper publishers around the country and the children are allowed to return year-after-year so long as they meet the "age" and "grade" requirements.

There are a very small number of publishers (like the Rocky Mountain News out of Denver) that will only allow a child to go once. My son went (from the Rocky) as a 6th grader this year after having studied for 4 months. He, of course, didn't get very far (which is fine). The problem is that all of the other 6th graders that dropped out said: "Oh well, I'll just try again next year".

The national bee should either 1) Allow child to keep coming back until they surpass the "age" and/or "grade" requirements, or 2) Only allow children to compete once at the national leve.

Either way, it should be consistent competition across the board...

[BaBaStooey]

EUONYM!!!!

**pummels annoying 13 year old**

[moog]

Guess you were never very good at the Hokey Pokey. ;~ )

Don't you know how hard that is to do with two left fee????

[moog]

feet that is...