NATIONAL SPELLING BEE 2008: ROUND FIVE

The Canadians fell en masse. When the dust settles you will see that they took Neil Michael Alacha with them. The word cholent got him stewed.

That leaves Zachary Zagorski as New York's last hope. I'm too busy to do the vast research that would reveal the meaning of his word, schnecke. Is it snail? Anyone want to help me with this one?

Also still in the running: Kavya Shivashankar (Krummholz) and fellow returnee Tia Thomas (mcleod). No time to look 'em up right now...though Krummholz looks awfully familiar...from last year?

NATIONAL SPELLING BEE: ROUND FOUR

New Jersey's Tisya Mavurum is out, felled by oakum. But still in the game are New York's Neil Michael Alacha (very gutsy on visceroptosis) and Zachary Zagorski (dancing off with abrazo).

Also still in the running: returnee Kansan Kavya Shivashankar (mobilometer, sufflaminate, bizarrerie).

NATIONAL SPELLING BEE 2008: ROUND THREE

Area spellers Neil Michael Alacha (Scholars' Academy/Neponsit) and Zachary Zagorski (Oceanside Middle School/Rockville Centre) made it into Round Three and survived, spelling delectus and auctorial respectively.

And Tisya Mavuram of Neptune, New Jersey qualified for Round Four with teratism.

NATIONAL SPELLING BEE 2008: ROUND TWO

The "locals" who made it to this year's competition include

Neil Michael Alacha (Scholars' Academy/Neponsit)
Allyn Mendoza Pasiliao (Saint Ignatius Loyola School/New York City)
Yassine El Yousfi (Longfellow Middle School/Mount Vernon)
Zachary Zagorski (Oceanside Middle School/Rockville Centre)

In Round Two, Neil put each letter of rubricate in its proper place, but Allyne made a bloody mess out of serology. Yassine failed to fly with tetrapteran, yet Zachary zapped affiliate.

As usual, the coverage is great at A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago. If I understand the scoring, it's possible that the above New Yorkers might all make it into Round Three. We'll see.