NATIONAL SPELLING BEE ROUNDS 6 AND 7

Oh, nice try, Zachary Zagorski! Congrats on making it to Round 6—but next time don't spell chrystocrene c-r-y-s-t-a-c-r-e-n-e.

Still in the game after 7 rounds: the formidable Kavya Shivashankar (pholidosis, allotriophagy) and Tia Thomas (ptarmic, canicular).

Tia is one of three spellers remaining from the strong California delegation, which also includes Austin Pineda (zeppelin, dispendious, Zanzibari, tombolo, oleocellosis, torii) and Justin Song (perlustrate, oppugn, bariolage, crenitic, duroc, trophallactic), who speaks a lot like a character on King of the Hill. No other state has had as many spellers go this far in this year's bee. (This California domination makes me think of the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.)

See 'em all duke it out during primetime tonight!