Results tagged “evano”

Hey, "A's" isn't that hard to spell! Spelling bee champ (and proud member of the BART family) Evan O'Dorney from Danville threw out the opening pitch at yesterday's A's/Red Sox game.

And the Bay Area dominates your reality TV scene YET AGAIN!!! Danville's own Evan O'Dorney, sponsored by the proud-as-punch Contra Costa Times, wins this year's spelling bee on the word "serrefine," which is not a brand of drinking water but rather, is a small set of forceps used for clamping blood vessels.

Tomorrow's the finals of the National Spelling Bee! We've already got our TiVo set for the semifinals (which happen while we're at work), we've cancelled all our evening plans for the finals (on ABC), we're already practicing not catching any spoilers of the event online throughout the day (your SFist updates tomorrow may be a little slow as a result), and we're trying to find a marimba player to play background music behind us all day, for that extra feel. H-double O-R-A-Y!

Every year it rules -- the Scripps Howard spelling bee. Is it that whiff of old world middle school mores? Is it the adorable freaked out word-geek kids, too young and frightened to disguise their feelings on stage? "Can I get a definition, please?" The rad ESPN "Under Pressure" ad? The snotty-voiced lady commentator? ("It's the schwa -- it gets you every time.") Naw. It's the bell! Today was the 78th Spelling Bee championship, broadcast live on ESPN, and dang it if we didn't watch the whole darn thing. Love it. Love it every year. Your obligatory Northern California angle? Aliya Deri, an 8th grade speller from Pleasanton who was sponsored by the Chron came in second (went out on "trouvaille" in the 19th round, like a champ). And the Contra Costa Times' sponsoree, home-schooled Evan O'Dorney from Danville, made it to the eighth round (going out on "athyriosis"). Our other favorite thing about the spelling bee? News articles laboriously attempting to use the championship word in the title. And yes, we love Spellbound too (which we saw first at the 2002 SF DocFest). Just for the marimba music alone!