Spelling Bee, Bill Simmons and Numbnuts - LOTD for you...

You probably couldn't miss it this year, as the Scripps National Spelling Bee had its quarter-finals, semis and finals broadcast by ESPN360, ESPN2 and ABC.

First observation - didn't it used to be the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee? (Answer: Yes, as recently as 2003). What happened to Howard? Did the dude pass away? Did Scripps stage a coup or hostile takeover? Has the "Howard" been scratched off the trophy? We need the answers.

I actually missed it this year. I don't normally watch it start to finish, but I'll usually turn in for a few spellings, try them on my own and go a big, fat 0-15 or so. ABC had the finals on during the Celtics/Pistons Game 6 (which, incidentally, got bumped from the mother station for the Bee), so I watched that instead.

For me, best part of the Bee isn't watching our next generation of scholars in action, seeing the cooperation and good sportsmanship they always demonstrate or learn some new words to add to my everyday lexicon. Nope. I watch for the astoundingly high levels of unintentional comedy. Just check out the "Numbnuts Clip" from eventual champion, Sameer Mishra:



The second highlight, after seeing a new batch of homeschoolers, band kids, chess-club members and social pariahs gesticulate and hyperventilate on national television, is re-reading Bill Simmons' classic ESPN.com running diary of the 2002 Bee. Absolutely hilarious and still funny six years later.

If any of you haven't read Simmons, I have him linked on the right for a reason. Sure, he's "just" an Internet sports columnist, but he's also one of my favorite writers. He's hysterically biting, relatively incisive and he's a Sox fan, so what more could you ask for? Definitely check him out.

Those are your links of the day... Bee well. Ha.