Thursday, June 01, 2006

Ursprache & Weltschmerz


Katharine Close, an eighth-grader at the H.W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, New Jersey, becomes the first girl since 1999 to win the national spelling bee.

After spelling "ursprache" correctly, Katharine Close stepped back from the microphone and put her hands to her mouth upon being declared the winner. "I'm just in shock," Katharine said. Asked what she'll remember most, she said: "Probably just hearing 'ursprache,' which is a parent language."

The word "weltzschmerz", which we all should reflect upon as it means sadness over evil in the world, tripped up the second place finisher - Finola Mei Hwa Hackett, a 14-year-old Canadian.

2 comments:

kimbofo said...

Oh wow. Those kids are so impressive. I would never know how to spell those words!

Steven LaRose said...

I'm sorry I haven't visited your blog lately but that was the most amazing bit of television I've seen in years. Albeit I rarely watch any TV at all, I couldn't walk away from this. The level of maturity was inspiring. The way that some of those kids wrote on their arms with invisible pencils however, freaked me out. I was also carefully studying the way that the families recieved their amazing (but not victorious children). Drama!