It hasn't happened in 52 years, but last night's Scripps National Spelling Bee final ended in a tie.
Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe correctly spelled so many words Thursday that the Scripps National Spelling Bee had to declare them both winners.
Why? Because there weren't enough words left on the competition's list for them to keep facing off until only one was left standing.
In the bee's final round, Hathwar, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Painted Post, New York, correctly spelled the word "stichomythia" -- dialogue especially of altercation delivered by two actors.
Sujoe, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Fort Worth, Texas, correctly spelled the word "feuilleton" -- part of a European newspaper.
You win at life when you make the National Spelling Bee run out of words to spell. B-A-D-A-S-S.
It's the first time the bee has ended in a tie in more than 50 years. The last time there were co-champions was in 1962, organizers said. Ties also ended the bees in 1950 and 1957.
"I think we both know that the competition was against the dictionary, not against each other," Hathwar said on ESPN after the win. "I am happy to share this trophy with him."
And like any great national champions, they got a shoutout from POTUS.
Congrats to Ansun and Sriram, the incredible co-champs of the #ScrippsNationalSpellingBee. You make us all proud! -bo
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2014
Well done.
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1 comment:
Sounds like an old H Beam Piper story: "A Planet for Texans" - where it was only a crime to kill a politician if the politician didn't deserve it (or if the manner of death was to extreme in relation to the politician's actions). In the story, a man who hacked a politician to death with a machete for proposing an income tax was deemed not guilty - and fully justified in his actions.
As Joe the (fake) Plumber seems to be a practicing politician these days, one wonders whether he feels that his theory on the Second Amendment should apply to himself. My guess is that he feels that only those with whom he personally disagrees can be shot.
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